BATAM ISLAND

For those who live in Singapore, the options for traveling around in the region is immense and inexpensive. If ones wants a change of scene from the organized, clean, orderly environment that Singapore is, one can escape to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia (of course) or perhaps a ferry ride across to one of the nearby Indonesian Islands. Yours truly did just that a couple of weeks back and this time it was for a holiday, a quick break at that.

Harborfront ferry embarkation area


Batam Waterfront ferry Arrival complex


From Singapore's Harbor Front terminal, there are ferries to the Indonesian Islands of Batam and Bintan. I chose Batam and after an easy 50 minute airconditioned ferry boat ride, we put into the Batam gateway at Sekupang. Most of those on board, especially day trippers from Singapore got off here because Sekupang entry point is connected to the biggest shopping Mall on Batam and also happens to be the "city Center". A few of us stayed on board to continue for a few minutes more and alighted at the "Waterfront City" gateway to Batam. Now, don't be fooled, there is no real city here but vast countryside, plenty of greenery and the waterfront area of course. Indians and others at the present, can clear Indonesian immigration at the visa-on-arrival counter at the arrival area by paying US$10 and please be wise to bring exact amount or you may get short-changed! They'll paste the entire page of your passport with a nice visa that's only good for one visit!

Main Mosque at the city center

I'd booked a spa package consisting of a Javanese aromatherapy massages at the Holiday Inn resort, minutes away from the waterfront City arrival complex and that's where we headed. After a seamless check in and putting the bags away, we used the hotel's free shuttle service that only runs on some days of the week, to go on a countryside trip and ending at the big mall that is the center of the city, mentioned earlier. Wandering around the city was fun and rather brief. Walking around the mall, like most mall rats and running into more Singaporeans than back home, we decided to get a meal. Veggies have no fear, options are here! We of course chickened out and ate at the cheapest Pizza Hut (the original franchise) that I have ever been to. It is a bit shocking when one first arrives here and looks at the cost of everything and one has to mentally calculate everything into Singapore Dollars to make sense of how cheap things are. If no calculations are made, prices appear in thousands of Rupiahs, the Indon currency. A meal and a couple of drinks can set us back by more than 60,000 Rupiahs. Basically around ten bucks in Singy money!

Spa complex at the hotel

Heading back to the hotel and the spa area of the complex, we were accorded a warm welcome, people who did not know us personally acted like they did and escorted us to a lovely Javanese hut. Spent the evening exploring the waterfront area, where dutch style buildings (the dutch ruled the spice islands for a long time and left their impressions everywhere)are occupied by locals who live there.

Buildings at the waterfront

The road next to the waterfront complex leads to the water front (where else!) and that is lined by plenty of outdoor style eateries, pubs, bars and such. Everything cheap on the menu and while seafood forms a bulk of it, not too hard to look for some limited veggie options such as local style fried rice, mixed veggies and such. This part of town is popular with the Batamese as well as foreigners. Ran into many North Americans who are doing projects in Indonesia and from some of the deep Texas drawls one could make out that they were basically drillers, oil men who have proliferated around the World looking for black gold.


The area around the waterfront



The next day, more exploration on foot and literally walked into a sign post by the road side that proclaimed that there was a flying club nearby! That takes the cake I thought and excitedly looked around for any aviation activity. Seeing none, except an abandoned hangar that also proclaims itself as the flying club, I was disappointed with the fact that there was just one microlight Aircraft, in a pretty bad shape, hanging around the hangar and weeds grew everywhere.

The "flying club" grounded!


I walked into the neighboring wake boarding complex to ask about the flying club and a local told me, in broken English, that it was in disuse (although this was starkly apparent) and they had stopped flying because there was no pilot (peeloth as he said it). The wake boarding school is a man made lake that goes around, laid out like a race course. It has these pylons that have motorized winches that's attached to a line. A wake boarder can catch one of those lines and wake board around the course.

Wake boarding

Coming back to Singapore later in the evening, on another seamless ferry ride and taking the MRT home was a tad depressing (The northeast line of the MRT starts and ends here). We had just gotten used to complete silence, no traffic and virtually no people or few people especially in the waterfront city area. The good thing is that places like this are so close to Singapore that, if one has time, or even just the weekend off, one can head out to unlimited options.

View from Batam departure area

Maybe it is Bintan or any other thousands of islands that make the Indon chain next time but that's going to have to wait, I'm off to India for Deepavali, Indian festival of lights and my favourite and then off to the Dubai Air Show. Cheers.

BREAKING NEWS - FIRST SUPER JUMBO DELIVERED

I write this as the first Airbus A380 Super Jumbo is being delivered to Singapore Airlines. The CEO of SIA has just made a speech and standing behind him are a bevy of Flight Attendants, symbolising the famous "Singapore Girl". SIA is the launch customer for this airplane. The CEO of SIA just announced live that while there was a long delay (about 18 months)that this airplane was worth the wait. Once he made the speech, they towed in the Aircraft and the CEO of Airbus and SIA boarded the plane along with the TV camera crew. They are showing the interior just now as I write. History has been made for aviation as well as SIA. As for Singapore, this small country has again stood out in the World and portrays itself as a modern, forward thinking and progressive country. The Super Jumbo epitomizes everything that Singapore stands for.

The Airbus A380 inaugural commercial flight is to take place on the 25th of this month from Singapore. There was a bidding war for seats on the first commercial flight and that has raised a lot of money, intended to go to charity entirely. A noble gesture for sure. SIA has just unveiled the various seating classes in the airplane and while there is additional space in economy class, the business class is the biggest in terms of space in the World. What takes the cake, however, is the Singapore Airlines suite class. For the first time in modern aviation, there is actually a suite, a private enclosure that is more like a small room. The suite class is a step beyond First Class, as they say.

I am impressed, by the show, by the design of it all, by the vision that went behind creating this behemoth of an airplane. I'm also impressed with what it is capable of doing, the efficiency of it's design and the Rolls Royce engines that virtually guarantees the lowest carbon emission per passenger by any airplane flying in the skies to day. I'm of course impressed that this tiny country, Singapore, is the proud first operator of this type of Airplane in the World. So I say, three cheers to all concerned.

Hong Kong - Smog or no smog

Just back from a couple of trips. This one was about a quick trip to Hong Kong. That too during the period said to be the worst time of the year because of air pollution and the pollution index was hovering around the danger mark. The weather was also too warm for this time of the year. Locals told me that this was the time of the year for some pleasant early fall weather. The recent typhoon to hit eastern China, it is said, had something to do with the smog staying around, in a high pressure area. That said, HK is really an easy place to get to. For Indians and many others, it is a seamless 'visa on arrival' and takes no time in getting past the immigration desks unlike in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia where the waiting time for a visa can be excruciating. The new airport is swanky, spacious and easy to get in and out of.

(The smoggy skyline of HK from the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront)


A high speed train takes one right from the Airport terminal to the heart of downtown HK in about half an hour. That's pretty good speed and a comfy ride. HK is famous in Asia for many things, Disney Land seems to attract a fair bit of Asian crowds who have not been to Disney's theme parks in the States. I was there on business and on this occasion had half a day to spend. Not much one can do, right? Actually, there's plenty to do in a short time and HK has a similar underground train system to the one we have in Singapore that I have written about previously. Except that they call it an MTR in HK. HK also has good busses and a tram system. No comparison to the dilapidated and rickety trams they have in Kolkata.



The MTR connects vast portions of HK territory and some say connects better than the Singapore MRT. It is cheap, fast,efficient and gets you everywhere you want to go. I hopped on one to Kowloon, on the other side of the bay and walked around in the afternoon sun, taking in the sights. Partly due to the weather and partly due to my interest in museums and art, I ventured into the Hong Kong Art Museum in Kowloon, they were exhibiting among many other things, selections from the collections of Asian artifacts housed in the British Museum. Spending most of the day in the air conditioned museum, I was fascinated by HK Museums own collections of Chinese art, Calligraphy and ancient pottery.

(Above and below - HK Art Museum)


Now that was something new to me, having glimpsed Chinese pottery on Nat Geo in the past. The outside area around the Museum is a walkway called as Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront and one gets a good glimpse of the HK skyline and the business district. Nearby is the "Avenue of the stars" and is a tribute to HK's movie scene. The beginning of the avenue has a tall statue of a woman and this is supposed to be the statue awarded to winners at the Hong Kong Film Awards functions. In front of the museum, and just as one exits from the underground road crossing, one comes across a domed structure. This is the Hong Kong Space Museum and the domed structure is an Omnimax theatre. I didn't have time to go in.

(The Movie Maiden)


(The Space Museum)
I'd like to mention a few things about the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. Firstly, it is well laid out and can handle the crowds without looking like a mess. Then the ease at which one can get in and out of the Airport. The options for eating is vast. What caught my eye, obviously, is aviation. This Airport has a large dedicated section for aviation, the technology that goes behind aviation, the history of aviation in Hong Kong and so on. They even have a large scale model of a glass cockpit Airliner that one can walk into. The entrance looks like a runway and the interior looks like an Aviation museum, indeed that's what it is. Working models that can be handled by visitors makes it interactive and gives loads of information. To spend time at the Airport, at this place within the Airport terminal building, is a cinch. Full marks to their efforts in promoting aviation this way. Through all my travels, I have not come across an aviation museum of sorts within an Airport terminal building that can rival this.






I have posted photos above and as always, please click on them to enlarge. I'm going to find time later next week to put in more posts. I have not done HK any justice in this blog. The next time I go there, I'll find more to see and write about. And hopefully the air quality would have improved and it won't be so hot!

Foot note: No, I didn't run into Jackie Chan, a lot of my friends asked me just that when I got back.

SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT-12 MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL

In my last blog piece I had mentioned about the mid-autumn festival in brief and that this was also the time famous for consuming moon cakes. What I'll do here is keep the information brief and let the pictures do the talking. Mid-autumn festival is a Chinese festival. So, this is celebrated wherever Chinese people live, mainland China especially. Singapore has a strong Chinese origin population, hence the hungry ghost and mid-autumn festivals and so on.

(Musicians entertaining the crowd at Clarke Quay)

The festival revolves around the moon or rather stories built around the moon, it being the biggest brightest object in the night skies (when it's not raining, and it is raining a lot these days in Singapore!). Essentially a harvest festival as it started in China. The China town section of Singapore is specially decked up with lanterns, huge and innovative ones. Not ot be left behind, the Clarke Quay area next to the Singapore river is also lined up with such colorful lanterns, adding a bit of music to the festivities. Moon cakes from all the big name hotels are found in stalls, in many malls across the Island. My focus this time was the lanterns near the Singapore river. Enjoy the pictures, click on them to get full size.









End

AMAZING FLIGHT

We had this recent shake up in Singapore last week, resulting from the massive under sea earthquake near Indonesia, the first of which measured 8.4 on the Richter scale. Since the local news was slow in breaking the news and since I was convinced that the rocking back and forth experience was due to a tremor and not my whiskey that i had just started on, I began searching for data on the United States Geological Survey for verification. They had the earthquake located and detailed on their website instantly it seemed. I had not visited the USGS website in a while and this time, it was something else that caught my eye other than the earthquake and it was titled "Bird completes epic flight across the pacific".

I was under the impression that USGS website contained only geological survey material. Turns out I was wrong and they have several projects going on including a joint study on the migratory pattern of certain birds. They have teamed up with researchers using various private and Government grants, to install tiny radio transmitters (via satellite) that would give the position of the birds in flight. This story was about a particular species, a land bird actually, called the Bar-Tailed Godwit. While they have radio tagged many Godwits, it was one called as E7 that got the scientific community in a tizzy. This female completed what can only be termed as an amazing flight non stop across the water (The Pacific) from Alaska to New Zealand. They determined that she was flying non stop because of the constant forward speed recorded by the radio satellite tag.

I cannot write better than what they have done on the USGS website and I encourage all bird lovers to take a look for themselves. Here is one paragraph of the journey that I felt overwhelmed about and I quote: "The last leg of E7's journey is the most extraordinary, entailing a non-stop flight of more than eight days and a distance of 7,200 miles, the equivalent of making a round trip flight between New York and San Francisco, and then flying back again to San Francisco without ever touching down."

I know aviators including myself who would marvel at this achievement because it is a bit beyond human capability at this time unless you strap on a huge gas tank and make a lot of noise and we'd still need advanced avionics to tell us where we are headed. What got the attention of the researchers is that E7 flew a route back from Alaska that is not commonly used and is perhaps the only bird recorded to have done this route. When going through the information on the USGS website, I'd encourage the reader to look at and pay attention to the maps provided highlighting the route that E7 took and you'll realize too that this is one amazing bird on a really amazing flight. Hail the Godwit!

USGS website: http://www.usgs.gov/
Link to the story: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1774

SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT - 11 HUNGRY GHOSTS

Singapore is a multi-cultural society as everyone knows. I sampled a part of it last night; this culture is particular to the Singaporean Chinese. The end of the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is upon us now but the entire month had festivities to honor and “entertain” the dead. Did you read that right? Of course you did. During the 7th month, it is known by the Chinese that the gates of Hades (or hell) are thrown open to the dead and they come down to the land of the living. They are known as the hungry ghosts. I’d be hungry too, if they had me locked up in hell for a year. So, the month is known as “hungry ghost’s month”. This festival is also big in Hong Kong and Taiwan except that in Singapore it has a twist.

(Getai-sound stage before performance)

During this month it is common to see Chinese origin people burning joss sticks, incense and conducting prayers for the returning dead. In order to provide entertainment to the returning dead, Singaporeans went one step further and organized singing concerts on stage. This is known as a Getai (sound stage) performance. Such performances are held throughout the island and this has become quite big in recent years. The Getai singers dress up in pretty skimpy outfits (yup you read that right as well) and perform for the hungry ghosts. I’d be hungry too if I returned to such entertainment, indeed. A live band accompanies the singers/performers. The front row has candles lit on them and no one is allowed to sit there, no mortals I mean. They are meant for the returning dead!

(Front row of seats with the lights-not for mortals!)

The songs are all in Chinese and such events throughout the month also attract overseas singers/performers from Taiwan. This year’s biggest local movie hit in Singapore has been the movie called “881”. In Mandarin, 881 sounds like Papaya (Pa Pa Yaw). The movie is based on the Getai culture of Singapore, all the songs in the movie are in original Hokkien and the movie runs with English sub-titles. The two main protagonists in the movie are called as the Papaya sisters and they are challenged by the Durian sisters in a Getai duel! Yours truly went to see the movie and then went on to see live Getai performances shown (in the photos) in this blog piece. For those who don’t understand the language, that’s OK, the melodies sound haunting (literally) and I loved the performances.

(click on pictures for bigger format-getai performers)


I would have liked to see more participation from other cultures in Singapore, just to learn, appreciate and integrate. It’s all in good fun. However, to my dismay, I was the only “Indian” in the movie hall and also in the crowd at the live performance. The next big event is the mid-autumn festival that is going on now, also Chinese origin culture where paper lamps of various hues and designs are lit all over Singapore. This is also the best time to tuck into very local “moon cakes” made from lotus seeds and consumed during the mid-autumn festival. All this talk of food, I’m hungry already lah, got to reach for that moon cake. Ta till next time.

SNAPSHOT – 10 SINGAPORE RHYTHMS

I’ve been away again hence the slowness in blogging. In Singapore, as I had mentioned last time, there’s way too many things happening. I’ll try and give an insight into the music, theatre, performances scene here this time. Singapore is trying to position itself as a entertainment hub (this word "hub" has been over-used) and is promoting all kinds of visual arts, music and theatre performances.

There are various venues around Singapore where performances are held, the best of all being the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. As the name suggests, it is by the bay and is Singapore’s answer to Sydney’s opera house. Architecturally different, named unofficially but affectionately as the Durian, it stands at the Marina Bay water front on a sprawling complex. The Durian is a local spiny covered fruit, it tastes like meat and smells really bad. The smell is so string that it is banned on all public transport, cannot even carry a piece of this fruit on an MRT or bus. I'm sure the local populace would differ with me and call it their king of fruits but let me say it is an acquired taste. It looks like a jackfruit, but beware, it aint jackfruit for sure.

(The durian shaped Esplanade in the background)

A number of theatres indoors and outdoors around the Esplanade area compete with each other in hosting performances of various kinds. The last performance I went to last year was the West Side Story, played by the original Broadway cast. The “King and I” is presently playing and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” is coming soon. The calendar is packed and one can take a look at the Esplanade website to check out what’s up next: www.esplanade.com
If you don't drive and take the MRT instead, get off at City Hall MRT and walk through the underground CityLink Mall to the Esplanade.

(The stage for Baybeats 2007)

The music scene here is also varied and the itinerary somewhat packed. To give an example, there was Christina Aguilera a few weeks back followed by Gwen Stefani and now Engelbert Humperdinck. I probably missed mentioning a few more as I have been in and out on my travels. To keep people amused, Singapore hosts the annual Indie Rock festival outdoors near the Esplanade and that is free for the public. The event was called Baybeats 2007 between 2nd and 5th August and included local as well as invited International bands. I took in the rock sounds of a Sydney based group called Intone and enjoyed it, this being my genre of music (I’m a Linkin’ Park fan BTW, for rock fans, I’d also suggest “Send away the tigers” a new album from Manic Street Preachers).

(Intone lead singer)

So, the next time when you are in Singapore, check out the Esplanade for performances and check out the local newspaper listings to see what’s going on. The hungry ghost festival is going on now and that is a Singaporean event mostly reflecting the culture and music of the Getai singers and performers who perform at various places in the heartlands. A movie based on this has been released called 881 (Pa Pa Yaw) in Chinese with English Subtitles. I’ll watch it and then post something on it. I may have to do a separate write up on the Hungry Ghost month. Singapore also had it’s National Day celebrations recently and there was the NDP parade and performances and for the first time this was done on the waterfront on the World’s largest floating platform. That’s another post as well.

(Intone in motion)

REGIONAL AIRLINES UPDATE FROM INDIA

One and a half years ago, January 13th 2006 precisely, I wrote a piece on my blog (http://mymysore72.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html) titled "wake up airline investors..." and that was about how the hinterland in India was largely unserviced by any Airline or operator in India. I had predicted that new investments were required from private players to tap this market. I had also predicted that the boom in aviation in future woukd come from the hinterlands.

Why am I rehashing old stuff? Well, news from India that I am following on the net these days suggests that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is paving the way for new "regional airline" operators to connect hitherto unconnected airports, using "regional" aircraft. There are some riders attached to the policy to ensure that regional routes are the primary business of the operators and to ensure that new licenses given for an airline does not violate the reduced norms of the Government.

The policy of encouraging new entrants to service the regional sectors is a good one. I am sure that feasibility of operating to smaller towns is not going to be a factor and I predict that the revenue yield per seat is going to be much above what "national" airlines are getting for their trunk routes. The new policy also allows existing operators to have regional subsidiaries but the license given will be in a different category. The Government has also offered lots of sops for companies willing to operate on these sectors, just to give them a jumpstart. I hope that new operators take this gauntlet tossed to them by the Ministry and turn this into profitable ventures. I say again, in my opinion, the hinterland in India is where the next boom is, for sure.

I guess this comes a little late, but better late than never, says an old cliche'. I have been shouting hoarse for a while on this subject. I don't believe for a second that the Aviation Minister read my blog of a year and half back although that would be flattering if he did! Only my fanciful thinking! I had to do this piece, felt good to be writing about aviation again.

SINGAPORE SNAPSHOT - 9 EXTREME SPORTS

I am not sure why they call stunts and acrobatics performed on bicycles, in-line skates and skate boarding as extreme sports, but they are called as such. Singapore is not left behind in the world of extreme sports and last weekend saw an extreme sports challenge take place right in the heart of down town. There is an area next to the Somerset MRT (train) station that has been designated as a graffiti area and for people to enjoy practicing their “extreme” sports. I have been watching young chaps accompanied by their doting girlfriends do their thing at the skate part (for lack of a better word). Skate boarding is a fun thing to do, for me at least, inline skating and stunt biking is not the thing for me although I’d watch people doing it.




So, yours truly had a weekend off, well almost the whole weekend, and what better way to spend the morning and a part of the afternoon but hang out at an extreme sports event? So, there I went, being among the oldest looking chaps at the place, in shorts, scrawny legs and all, gawking at youngsters ability to throw themselves and get hurt in as many ways as the imagination can stretch!


The event was well organized and that is one of the things that I have said in the past and perhaps I sound like a broken record now, everything happens in Singapore the way it is supposed to happen. That said, the event had rock music and sponsored by various sponsors of extreme sports equipment, the Singapore Sports promotion people, a local radio station that plays the latest music including my favorite genre (rock) and other sponsors.


The morning session was dominated by the bicycle stunts participants and by noon the inline skaters had done their thing followed by the skate boarders. Young Singaporeans have taken to the sport, although not in huge numbers and they had their colorful spectators to cheer them on and the locals were joined by some expats as well, especially in the skateboarding part of it. Can’t say that I saw any of my fellow Indians there though, conspicuously missing as usual, perhaps at home or perhaps doing typically sedentary activities on a lazy Saturday, even watching extreme sport can be too tiring for some!


For those of you who have watched these events on T.V. I’d say that being there is better, the spills and thrills are better to watch from up-close except that I never managed to take any pictures of mid-air acrobatics and there were some of them who looped their bikes and skates. Since the options were unlimited on the day and since I was tempted to pack more things on my off-day, I wandered off to the annual rock concert that takes place in Singapore and is free to the public. That’s going in my next post along with a preview of the flying displays that I watched and took pictures of, in preparation of the National Day Parade. Singapore is celebrating its 42nd Birthday on the 9th of August and I’ll tyr and put in some information after the celebrations.

RETURN TO THE DRAGON

This trip to Macao was interesting because I managed to visit the Southern Island of Coloane’ (pronounced as colo anne). In my previous blog titled “Macao” published on April 21st and “More of Macao” on April 28th of this year, I had written about Macao peninsula mostly and in the second part I had mentioned about making a visit to the countryside of Macao. Fortune favored me and I was able to visit briefly an island called Taipa on which the International Airport is located and is also a residential island. Taipa hosts many schools and has some open spaces.

(Macau streets along the main casino belt)


I went on my usual wanderings around Macao peninsula close to the casinos and it took me a while to locate the bus stop that takes one to Taipa, continuing on to Coloane’. The bus stop is behind the new Hotel Lisboa. Bus number 25, 26A or 21 can take one to these places. The bus route takes one over the new bridge that connects Taipa with Macao and the vista is magnificent. The weather this time was better in terms of visibility but hot and humid in terms of temperature and sweat factor-not an easy combination to have when one is on a field trip of sorts involving lots of walking. I stayed on the bus as it went around Taipa, having nothing much to see there at the moment and continued on towards Coloane picking up some loud, boisterous North American kids in school uniforms. Looking at Taipa one felt that the American invasion of Macao had taken place. I assumed that their folks perhaps worked at the numerous casinos or involved in building them. As I had said in my last post on Macao, this country/S.A.R of china has overtaken Las Vegas in the casino business.

It is unbelievable to see that there is no real “sea” between Taipa and Coloane like I had expected. They have filled it up and the area is rapidly being developed to accommodate more casinos. Some of them like “The Venetian” looked complete to me, a shiny new edifice with a lot of undeveloped dirt areas surrounding it. This strip that has been reclaimed from the sea is known as the Cotai strip and this is going to presumable make Las Vegas look small.

(Quite Coloane)

Moving further south to Coloane’, the “island” if it can be called that presently, appears quiet and pleasing. It is hilly and green and as the road winds up and down the hill side, one cannot but appreciate the abundance of nature, a short ride away from the upcoming bustling metropolis of Cotai.

The American kids and their Chinese look-a-likes got off at what looked like expensive bungalows by the sea. It pays to be an expatriate working on a casino project for sure. I sat in the bus till the last stop at a beach, getting off to walk around a bit and watch those who were running in and out of the surf. Not adequately equipped for a frolic in the sea, I avoided a dip but noticed that the facilities like fresh water showers and well maintained toilets were easily accessible, something that beaches in India (although more spectacular than these in Coloane”) lack. Heck, people lack these amenities such as clean public toilets even in large cities in India, forget beaches.

Coloane beechside, bungalows in background)

I ventured back on another bus, they all retrace the route back to Macao and it was easy to get off in the middle of Coloane’ where the main village is located. It is a quiet sleepy village, neat and tidy and with loads of history and has a distinctly Portuguese influence in its architecture and general feel. I was famished and thought that I’d need an energy drink and ordered a Banana milk shake. Vegetarians need not worry, this place called Lord Stowe’s Garden restaurant has a nice selection of pure veggie food and I settled for a Veggie Lasagna. It was really good, I was impressed. Staff speak good English, not strange because I guess the local village economy thrives from tourists. I did not find hoards of tourists though and I liked that immensely.

(Bus stop opposite Lord Stowe's with a Fanta Bottle!)

Lord Stowe’s is located at the Villa Coloane square, as one comes out the main door, turning right will tale you to where people live. Turning left takes one to a mini roundabout where the road meanders around to the sea and splits up with one branch going to the left and the other to the right. Both roads hug the shore. The tide was low and I figured one could have walked over to the neighboring island (part of mainland china).

(Road leading to sea-coloane')

I took the road going left and left again near the shore, a short walk brought me to St Francis Xavier, a figure who left a mark on the lives of South East Asians in the 1540-1550 A. D. This church is fairly new built in 1928 but dedicated to the saint who did a lot of work around these parts in the 1500’s. Further there is a “large” square dedicated to a victory over pirates. This part of the World has seen pirate activities since ages, since there was shipping I guess. Coloane’ was supposed to have been a pirate base till 1910 A.D. when they were finally driven out to sea. This square commemorates the event.

(Church of St. Francis Xavier)

Walking further along the shore, I saw dehydrated young people struggling to find the strength and in various states of distress due to the heat and humidity. Tourists for sure, made me think that youngsters these days are not as tough outside their air-conditioned environment. This fool (your truly) kept going on, and reached a point that serves as a dead end where there is a Chinese temple called Tam Kung, a Taoist sea faring god who looks after sea farers welfare. The notable thing here is a whale bone carving of a dragon boat and their crew. There are short trees with not much foliage along the shore and the walk balk to Lord Stowe’s feels longish at 2:00PM. That’s why the tour guide book recommends visits during summer during early morning or late evening time. For those like me who cannot acquire any more tan that we are born with, and with some rough backpacking experience, the time does not matter not does the heat.

(Tam Kung Temple)

Lord Stowe’s has a bakery on the corner near the roundabout and I ran into an Indian looking guy who gave me a smile. I stopped to have a small chat and that made him happy, not seeing “his kind” in great numbers in Macao and that too in desolate Coloane’. He was from the Southern Indian state of Kerala and was serving as a baker at Lord Stowe’s.

I walked around the little roundabout, pleased with the surroundings, enjoying the peace and quiet and ended up at the bus stop that has a large Fanta next to it. One does not have to wait for long as busses are frequent. I was back in Macao and spent the evening at the fisherman’s walk that I had mentioned in my last posts on Macao, along the outer harbor, watching helicopters coming in and out. A sudden downpour drove everyone in and while I was sitting and sipping my Hoegaarden brew, I was entertained for free, by a group of Americans who were as usual loud, boisterous and funny. I didn’t mind that, after all they did bring out a laugh out of me with their various antics. The invasion is complete, Macao is full of them.

(Fishermans Wharf Macau)