Travelogues

New Zealand, Australia, Thailand & Malaysia were some of the places that I traveled to these days. Not that I like these places, I traveled there for work. Most of these work trips were hectic and usually tightly scheduled with back-to-back meetings. These were usually followed by work dinner and/or emails till late into the nights.

Christchurch, NZ, was the least pacy of all the cities. This place had nice colonial architecture but very much a "ghost town" after 7pm. I were referencing to my favourite city, Hong Kong, but even by Singapore, KL or Taipei standard too. Christchurch, however, has nice, friendly people. The pace of life, in my impression, was considerably slow. It is a very self-sustaining country with srong farming anf agriculture communities. People there earned good salary and maintained quality of work-family life balance.

My Australia leg was usually hectic shuttling around Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. However, I had grown to like these cities. Sydney has its charm. It was very relaxing to enjoy dinner along the scenic and brightly lit view from Darling Harbour after a long day work. The weather was usually cooling ranging from 10 - 25 deg C with humidity around 40% - 65%.

Sydney is also home to the world famous & magnificent Sydney Opera House. One can take a boat ride from Darling Harbour to view the maginificent Sydney Bridge, stopping at the bustling Circular Harbour, enjoy a few hours at Luna Park, a theme park and watch sunset against the background of Sydney Opera House.

Traveling into the suburb, Redfern, will show you a different Sydney and can be a challenging experience. Redfern, was where the original aboriginals live. It was known for its high crime rate and classified "not so safe" for tourists. Most, if not all, of these aboriginals lived on social fund and did have a job. Neither did they have any skill. It was not uncommon to see drunkard lying around the pavement, group of rowdy youth with steel rods and people seating along the street - doing nothing. The nearest subway station had fence all round with security guards.

Melbourne was a decent place. It had good resturants, rainy weather and decent pace of life. Don't expect too much excitement like Sydney or HK. I particularly like Brisbane, home of the Great Barrier, Ayer Rock, Surfer Paradise and Sunshine Beach. A place of many young & beautiful people with relaxing attitude towards life. Nicely dress up, good food, morning beer and wine on race day. Who would pass such as a lifestyle?

Bangkok had its charm on me and I did not dislike this city. Unfortunately, it was not for no reason that people associated Bangkok with traffic jams, pollution, bargain buys, food and exciting nightlifes. Some peole liked them, some didn't. It was not easy to get around without a local guide especially to industrial area and suburbs. Taxi drivers, from the city, could not understand English and did not know the industrial/rural area well. Map was not as clear unlike Singapore or Australia.

I was told that shopping was inexpensive in Bangkok but I haven't found anything worth buying after so many trips there. Food was very affordable comparing to Singapore and Australia. I had, however, grown to love the massages and spa.

Thais, were however, very friendly people - overly friendly in some situation to my liking. I also felt that they were also rather insecure and, workwise, I were not too impressed with the quality that I had seen so far. I must say that I did not meet too many people or involved in sizeable project to make a good conclusion. However, labour cost was obviously significantly lower than Singapore and Malaysia.

More to come ...