Super Cold in Canada, Super boring science center

I think the last place I will want to go if I ever come back to Toronto is to go to the Science center. Not many interesting exhibit around the whole building literally look empty with only the basement 2 and basement 1 use as exhibition hall. Maybe the Ontario Science Center is more suitable for kids or students to come for education purpose or project but not really for my taste. Most of the exhibit are more of reading than hands on which is not what it really should be cause I could just read stuff out of the books and not travelling all the way to the Science Center to read it. Whatever hands-on exhibit there are does seems interesting but is no more different than what I have seen in the pass at the Hong Kong Science center.

At less I made the statement "Not many interesting exhibit" thats where some credit can be given for today to justify my trip there. Read so much about "AeroGel" in the past, on its wonderful weight and strength properties and how its actually made of 1% silicon dioxide (sand actually) and 99% air. Incredible piece of material, its so light you can't feel it at all.

Its ice, its sugar, not its Aerogel from NASA

The trip back to downtown was mark by a 15 degree celsius weather with a strong North wind that literally threaten to froze me. I was only wearing a T-Shirt, a jacket and a Levi Jeans. It was so damn cold I have to keep my hands in the pocket and bend my head down to prevent the wind chill freezing up my face. For the first time in my life, I experince something colder than Genting, fortunately got into the bus without much waiting. Good thing about the bus here, or should I say its pretty essential for places with 4 seasons, is that its equipped with heater. Notice that there is a small exhuast coming out from the rear top of the bus, must be the heater exhuast. Imagine my relieve once I got into the Bus, so relieve but still freezing that I went into Hibernation all the way to the subway station. I think it was the coldest period of my stay here.

Back in the Hostel, joined Korean friend Song and Japanese new friend Saori and our French counterpart Christion for home cook (Hostel cook) dinner of Korean instant noodles, Char siew and "Xio Ba" (Roast pork) from local chinese restauraunt. Together with some Kim Chi ( i love it) and Radish mix with Vinegar. For the first time, I tried rice wine call Sakae in Japanese and Sou-Ju in Korean. Learn that some Korean prefer sour and hot food rather than sweet food. Song have to take out some of those "Bi Bim Bab" sauce call "Go Zu Zang" as a dipping sauce to get the Korean taste he want for the Char Siew and Roast pork I got for him. It does taste different and pretty tasty, like a new dish by itself when mixed with that Korean sauce. As for Saori, I told her its BBQ Katsu (Pork in Japanese) and its Oishi (tasty). My Japanese friend was full of praise for the food but she might just have been really polite even if it does not suit her. Our French guy Christion went straight for a glass of water after taking a bite on the Korean instant noodle. It was just shockling hot and sour for Europeans like him who have always been taking mild tasting food but he just love Char Siew and Roast pork. The French guy still finish his bowl of noodle cause the taste just grows on him after a few more bites, I bet he have no qualms going for another bowl but it have all been eaten up by one hungry Singaporean.

Sou-Ju wine was really really strong stuff, at 20% alcohol level, beginner drinker should not attempt more than half a glass. It goes really well with meat though cause its a very dry wine and that helps to enhance the taste of meat on the tastebud. However just that little bit of wine, not even match a pint of beer, is already making me pretty tipsy and red on the face. Anyway, a good first time experience on rice wine but it won't be the last...kinda enjoy the excitement in the taste.

The French version of Fear Factor, tasting Asian food.

Tormenter from Singapore, Korea and Japan. Just look at those snigger.


Maggie Mee, Kim Chi, Vinegar Radish, Chinese Pork.


French man showing his support for Asian rice wine.

Cultural or cross country exchange.

...Building Castle In The Skies...

The great thing about staying in a traveller hostel is the cultural and language exchange between resident from different country. Just yesterday, I joined a a Scottish, two British guys and a Irish girl to a local Karaoke pub. That was a great night out and the whole pub atmosphere was fantastic! No one is conservative or shy and everyone is grabbing the mic. The Canada version of Karaoke is different from what I expected, instead of a TV hanging around the pub with MTV and lyrics there is only 1 TV infront of the singer, a random color background and lyrics...thats all. I was of cause caught by surprise when it was my turn to sing "We Are The Champions" by the Queen and literally miss out the beginning of the song. The crowd however was very very encouraging and lead the song for me.... very very great crowd out there. Sing my heart out for the rest of the song. But the wild and loud ones are of course the Ang Mos right there, they just have a no hold barred and very expressive stage presence... Ended the day with a United Nation rendation "Hey Jude". Angus from Scotland, Gareath from England and Riccardo from Singapore. Melissa from Ireland was pretty quiet for the night. Funny thing is the guys all gave me a wink when I decided to leave the pub earlier with Melissa...hmm...what were they thinking man.

Today, the Hostel kitchen is another place I have a great cross-country food culture exchange. My Korean friend, Sung Park, invited me to join him in the kitchen to make some Bim Bi Bab. Have my favourite Korean food so far but have not appreciate the art of Korean food preparation so this is my first try. Surprisingly, it was really easy to make Bim Bi Bab. First cook some Japanese rice, next pan fried an egg till the white solidify but the yolk is still watery. We don't have chicken so we fried some hotdog as replacement and boil carrots and mushroom for 20 secs. Prepared a big pot and place all the rice, hotdog (which can be any meat), carrot, mushroom and add in fresh clean spinach and finally topping it up with fried eggs. Add a bit of seseme oil and lastly the most important ingredient, the red sauce use on all Bim Bi Bab, "Go-chu-zhang" is added in. Just stir and mix all the stuff together like rojak and it BIM BI BAB!!! Home cooked style. Realise its a very very easy dish to made thus will be making it pretty frequently for lunch when I am back working in Texas. A bit of creativity, I could mix other ingredient into the BIM BI BAB and make my own Riccardo's version...

Than there was this Brazilian girl, a undergraduate of Bio-Medical and Neuro Sceince who offer us Cactus fruit. It look like a pear with pimples. Her name is "My-Tin" thats how I pronouce her name in my way, can't bother to learn how to spell it. Tasted cactus fruit the first time, it tasted like Kiwi with big hard seeds!!!! I was asking Mytin if we have to spit it out but she said just swallow it. Now I am just waiting to see what develop in my stomach. My Korean friend went to crush the seed with his teeth instead! It was pretty hilarious.

I came to learn how very valuable Singapore English education is to me now that I am in a foreign land surrounded by people from all over the world. Those many years of education from Kindergarden, Primary school and finally secondary school have bridged whatever communication gap with people around the world. Everyone here in Canada be it European, American, Canadian, Arabs and Asian speak English although not all of them are fluent with it. There are lots of Asian who came here specially to attend English lesson because it was not offer as a first language subject back in their country. People from Korea and Japan especially. We really have to appreciate our Singapore Education system that prepared us to speak to the world without a hitch. I am not trying to boost about Singapore education system but the aspect on learning English have truly been appreciated by me so far.

My Korean friend Sung was right about learning English, its just not enough to learn from classroom cause you are still going to speak back to your native tongue when you are out with friends and back home. The same goes to my work in Texas, surrounded by Singaporean guys and speaking chinese and singlish here and there... its still not gonna help in any improvement in language skill. Simply said, when you are totally surrounded by Ang Mo, you learn their language well, totally surrounded by Japanese, you speak good Japanese in few years, surround by Korean everyday, you will be fluent in Korean language. The same goes to Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish...almost any language! Its about mixing with the right company.

Casa Loma "House, On The Hill" Built in the 1911 and was never completed as the owner, a Military Leader, an Industrialist and a Philantropist went broke halfway through its construction. Eventually took over by the City Of Toronto as a result of his bad tax debt. Now its a Tourist attraction for you and me. Probably the only Castle within a City.

The Day and the Night of Toronto City

Scaled the CN Tower today, it is the tallest man-made tower in the world (as claimed) and the height allowed for some stunning day and night time pictures. Click on it to view the larger version.

This is a private airport on an island just off the Toronto Harbour Front. When the plane land, it looks like crash landing into the water.

Dusk approaching and the City lights are slowly lit...

Where the spot lights are coming from is the Air Canada Center, an indoor arena which host Ice Hockey/ Basket Ball games.

From my view point on the highest reachable part of the CN Tower, the SkyPod.

Day 3 Toronto: Niagara Falls

Joined the Moose Travel Network to Niagara Falls (Cost CAD$50 for a whole day trip at Niagara Falls) today together with a new Korean acquitance, Sung Gu Park, 35 years old, Teaches English to kids in South Korea and is currently travelling around to improve his English speaking skills. He told me that many English educated Korean are able to write well but not speak well unless they are rich and went to the Ivy league equivalent of English school in Korea else they got to learn it the hard way. Sung went through the hard way as evident by the way he speak English but its not a problem at all, I got funny English too with the make-up Texas Accent mumbo jumboed with Singlish sometimes.

Bilateral relationship of South Korea and Singapore

Headed for Niagara Falls in a small little bus with 2 Scottish aunty, 2 Swiss, 2 English man from Manchester and Newcastle (hmm...), an Australian and a Brazilian lady on her first oversea trip. Now I was expecting Niagara Falls to be totally Natural and was surprise to see the kind of Concrete Jungle that have thrived around this Natural wonders all for the simple reason of tourist revenues. The area is totally raped by Sheraton Hotel, Niagara Casino, Marvel Adventure Center, Starbucks, KFC, TACO Bell, KFC, Lots of gift shop... , if the Waterfall is not even here, it look just like another city. Thank goodness the two water falls itself is left untouched and the view is the most awesome stuff I ever come across in my life. In fact I never seen a Natural Waterfall right in front of my eyes in my 25 years of life and the sight of one of the great natural wonder of the world simply overwhelmed me! Especially the sight of a full arch rainbow beaming from one end of the Waterfall to another. The rainbow really looks like it pop out of the water. First time I see the end of the rainbow otherwise usually seeing it popping out of the roof of HDB flats . Picture speaks a thousand words...

The Concrete Jungle...

The Big "Horse Shoe" waterfall...

And the small brother water fall just down stream from it.

Nevermind about dwelling into how Niagara Falls was created which can be easily obtained from the Internet by Googling or Wikipediaing. But here is some interesting notes I learn about the Falls,

1- The water way is the Natural border between Canada and United States.

2- The full view is fabulous from the Canadian Side rather than the American side, so American drive over the Rainbow bridge to Canada just to get the great view from their neighbours windows.

Not always rosy for the Americans, so a Rainbow Bridge for the Yankees to come over to Canada for a good view of something so close to them yet so far.

3- Rainbow bridge is named for the Rainbow that arches from one end of Niagara Fall to Another.

Rainbow popping out of the ocean like some kinda Magic!!!

And Arches across the sky!!!

Dipping within distance of facinated Homo Sapiens...

4- There are many people who attempt to challege mother nature by diving into the Niagara Falls. Some survive while most was never found again. A man challenged the English channel and sucessfully swam from England to France Normandy coast, the man tries to swim across Niagara Fall, the man was never found again. A kid fell into the water while fishing upstream, got swept downstream, down the waterfall and survived in his life vest. And today, someone got so mesmerized by the sight that he decided to bungee but miss the water by inches...




So realise that they got a "High Angle River Team" specialized in conducting rescue of fallen people or the salvage of dead bodies at the bottom of the cliff. Even with the Danger signs going around, there are some who just wanted to enter the extinction list sitting on the railings.

4- There seems to be a half hearted bridge building effort in the past...

Guess the budget ran out and the end got seal up to become a observer tower for the Small Brother waterfall. What a shame that it started from the American side... not a good symbol of power.

If you are at the Niagara Falls, be sure to see the best of both world...the Day and the Night... Every night, there will be different colors spotlight shining on the waterfall and every Sunday is firework day. I did not catch the firework but got some night scene pictures to share before ending my blog entry for the day...






This is Riccardo, reporting LIVE from the Canadiana Backpacker Hostel....

Bilateral relatioship of Brazil and Singapore

Double Culture Shock!!!

Went on a City jalan jalan tour with a new guy I met at the Hostel name Baha. He is from Egypt but have stayed in Canada for almost 4 years. We headed to China Town in the morning for Baha first culture shock. Went into a Dim Sum store and ordered some "Long" of Dim Sum... have to avoid pork cause he is an Arab, although he don't mind at all. Next thing is to teach him how to use to chopstick and how to grab those food. He sure is not gonna give up after 4 mins trying to grab the chicken feet from the plates. Eventually Baha gave up and just use the chop stick to poke and eat but he did manage to get the hang of it after sometimes.

Baha invited me to this small cafe at Baldwin Street, west from Spadiana Ave. What turn out to be a normal looking street side cafe was actually a marijuana smoking joint c.u.m cafe. So the customer order drinks and smoke marijuana without breaking any laws. As a matter of fact, after finding out from Baha, the police don't bother people smoking marijuana provided they don't sell it. If no one sell it, it means that user have to grow it in their own backyard and the cafe sell books teaching you how to grow marijuana plant. The Cafe don't get into trouble cause they only sell drinks and provide a place for smoking although ironically they sell the books, the pipe and the rolling paper (no marijuana). Unfortunately I am not able to take pictures in there else get myself beaten up for intruding others privacy but think of the cafe like a Starbucks with Marijuana smoking. Needless to say, I learn what the smell of Marijuana is like from all those 2nd smokers from the young, the old, the professinal office workers and the hippy in there.

The only picture I could take, wall full of Marijuana plants.

Headed for Yonge Street at night, its the Longest Street in the world...

This whole stretch of street is the Orchard Road of Toronto City and it stretches all the way to the northern end of Canada. 1887km long! You find shopping, nightclub, restauraunt and strip bars all along the road. I came here late at night and haven't got the time and energy to fully explore it yet, so the field report is going to be a bit limited. However did see some street vibrancy in term of art and music. Something you can't find in Singapore is the liberty to draw on the concrete walkway, maybe even permit won't be issue for creative vandalism...

Booze with International friends

Went for a evening walk around Downtown Toronto and got a bit loss along the way. Thankfully all the streets are either in the North South direction or the East/West. With a tourist brochures map and a few recognizable landmark, manage to find my way back to the Hostel. I thought the weather is gone be freezing cold at 12 degrees Celsius however it turn out that this is the best period to be in Toronto. Not too warm and not to freezing, just the right weather provided you wear a jacket while outdoor. It was drizzling a bit but the low humidity literally dry you up before the water seep through the clothing. Lip Balm is a must!

Got back to the hostel and join a few International friends for round of beer over a talk cock session. There is Hugh and Shmes from Ireland, Angus an Indian and a optometrist from England, Sarah the Financial Adviser from England too, Logan from New Zealand and a Scottish guy who I forgotten his name revolve around sex, boobies, our jobs, our different English Accent and where to go in Toronto. Man....Irish people sure can drink a lot and still stay sober. Apparently one of them have been drinking since 4pm this afternoon, its 8.30pm when I met up with them and after 2 glass...I am concuss...

Ang Mos sure can drink a lot, just look at all thos booze on the table

United Nation Team from the left: Shmsy (Ireland), Riccardo (Singapore), Angus (England), Sarah (England), the Scottish Guy and the last guy I did not get his name or Nationality.

Me and the heavist drinker for the day, Hughes from Ireland.

Touch Down--Toronto Canada

Finally! I am here, touch down at Pearson Airport after a 3 hours flight from Dallas/ForthWorth from 6.30am. Night shift work ended at 1.30am and it was really rush to get home, bath, do some final packing and with Ricky and his car help, got to Dallas/Forth Worth airport at 3am. Spend much of the early morning sleeping at the airport cause the check in time at Air Canadian counter was 4.30am.

Reached Toronto at local time 10am and now its time to figure out how to get to DownTown Toronto and to the Canadian Backpacker Hostel to catch some sleep. Yup, pretty tired for the first day thus I rather spend the day sleeping and rest so I am recharge for a full day activity the next day. Thanks to my research previously for the trip, finding the way to DownTown Toronto was not that difficult. Public transport here is way better than Dallas where it is almost non-existants. Toronto got a very good transport system as far as I have observed. I took Bus 192A "Rockets" from the Arrival hall to Kipling Subway Station.

The "Rocket", fancy name for an SBS style bus

SUBWAY LINES OF TORONTO

Was really surprise that the CAN$2.75 I paid for the Bus service actually allows me free transfer over to the Subway services. Kipling station, which is on the Bloor-Danforth line brings me Eastward for a subway switch to "Yonge-University-Spadina" line heading North/South. It is well named the University lines since all I see are mostly young university students in the train. Head south next to "St Andrews" station which puts me right in the middle of the financial district or "Exchange Tower". Its like Raffles Place with all the tall buildings and scrolling LCD screens.

While heading West along King Streets towards the backpacker hostel, its impossible to miss the tallest building in Toronto, the CN Tower. Its such a big landmark that the best way to get there is just by walking towards it.

The Candle on the cake...

After a 15 minutes walk in the cool early autumn weather of Toronto, I finally reached "Canadian Backpacker Hostel". Not a very friendly bunch of staff I find but for the price of CAN$30 per day of stay, you can't expect too much of a customer service too. Nice cosy bed and a hot shower is all I need right now.


ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Last day preparation for Canada Toronto

After 3 days of more than 12 hours a day night shift work, I am glad I manage to get home at 1.30am today. Yesterday was really horrible, some work stuff cock up and we work till 4am (Today), literally from Dusk to Dawn work timing. When I got home after taking an early breakfast with my colleague, it was almost sun rise. The Sunrise can be enjoyed from my home balcony since its facing the east. The scenery brings a calm ending to a day of hard physical and mental work.


Its 2am now and doing my bag packing for the 10 day long holiday while simultaneosly chatting with my girl online and clearing all the household bills from Singapore and US bills. She is feeling a bit sick today and that kind of worried me especially when I am going for my holiday soon. Pray god for a speedy recovery.

So whats packing in Riccardo's giant backpack now for his first US backpacking trip?

1) Just 4 Days worth of clothings.
What?! Surviving in the filthy clothings for the rest of the trip? Nah, just gonna pack light initially and buy clothes from Toronto during the standard Singaporean shopping trip. The average temperature will be 15 degree celsius during the day and below 10 at night. Finally, I could bring those cold weather clothings and jeans out from the wardrode after collecting dust over the summer period in Texas.

2) Toiletries...in another bag
Toothpaste, tooth brush, Shaver (i need to shave everyday, grown man loh), Shampoo and soap. Thanks to the failed terrorist plot to blow up some British Airline planes...all liquid item are now prohibited for carrying on hands onboard all American flights. So I have to put all this in a small bag for baggage check in. Kind of an under utilization of my previlege.

3) Digital Camera, Spare Batteries and Charger.
No way to go to a brand new place without my Digital Camera. Lots of photos to snap land it will be like a attendance book for my visit to Toronto and Niagara Fall and maybe New York if I got the time. Of course, extra batteries is a must and a small charger will come in handy too. With a 1GB SD card on hand, it allow me thousands over shots on the camera, something films can't do at all without changing lots of rolls of films. Currently holding a Nikon Coolpix 3200 digital camera, not the best in the market but sufficient. My Sony Ericsson W800i Camera phone will play a supporting role during the trip.

4) My laptop
Got a big enough bag for my laptop, a spare battery and a charger. Have brought a Laptop sleeve to put it in so that those hard objects in my backpack will not damage it. Objective is to blog daily in Toronto so laptop is a must! However, I sure hope it will be much smaller like 12inch instead of 15.4

5) Passport, Cash and Credit Card.
I can forget about bringing anything but I can never ever forget about PCC (ha ha...sound dirty.) Passport, Cash and Credit card. Although US Citizen can cross the longest unprotected border in the world to Canada without a passport, just a green card.... foreigners like me don't enjoy such bonus. CASH is king! Without everything, you can survive on CASH alone in a City but probably not in Sahara desert. CASH is the common commodity exchange recgonize around the world. Credit card just make CASH really compact...thats all.


Will be working night shift the day before my 6.30am flight on Friday. Gonna rush home straight after work, make final preparation before heading to the Airport just 10mins away from home.

Tough times create strong bond, like super glue

I suddenly realise today that the numerous weekend plus yesterday and today (Sunday) work have created a stronger bonding between all the guys and gals working hard on our Base annual audit preparation.

Even if the objectives for the Audit was not 100% met, I feel everyone should appreciate the much better bonding earned in this tough period. What we might lost in the war with the auditors, we gain in co-workers relationship.

"Only a storm can test the strength of the ship"

First postcard from Singapore in my life

Was beaming with smile and super touched yesterday when I recieve a friend's post card from Singapore. This is the first time I ever recieved a post card and ironically its a Singapore Themed post card send to a Singaporean (me lah). Usually people should be receiving post card that is not from their country/ nationality. Hmm.... can smell the air and dust of Singapore on the post card. Paste it nicely on the wall beside a really cool "make over" photo I took, always reminding me the people waiting for me to return back home in one piece, a more enlighten person and a greater character than before. And thats exactly my objective for this oversea work trip... to survive in one piece, getting in no trouble. To be better enlighten about life and been a homo sapien and to build good characteristic for the better of mankind. Ha ha!