Personal website of Mithun Divakaran, a guy you may or may not know -- or like.
Date: June 28th, 2012
Day 2 in Hong Kong began feeling fresh. I slept for more than 10 hours and the jet lag had nearly worn off. I repacked my bag and left the hostel to begin my photography for today.
Continue reading “Hong Kong: Views from Victoria Peak, day to night” »
Date: September 22nd, 2011
Yesterday turned out to be better than I hoped. Today I was adamant to make it even better!
I shared my table with a local who began chatting with me after he asked me why I was taking photos of what I was going to eat. I told him about my website, and why I was taking many photos. He asked me whether I worked here, and I told him ‘no’. I gave him my brief life story and in the end, he complimented my English. He suggested I could try for a job in Singapore but all this while, my food was getting cold.
Sucks. The only reason I ordered the biriyani was because it looked piping hot as they served it. Most of the food served at these kind of stalls restaurants are rarely ever hot. They’re usually pre-cooked and served out of buffet trays as per order.
The local sat with me long after he finished his meal as he continued to make conversation with me. The only thing I asked him was “what other good hawker centres are there?” He told me a few, and I noted them down. I gave him the link to my website and we parted ways.
Post lunch, I headed straight to Funan IT mall to pick up my 70-200mm lens from John 3:16.
They told me the Canon service center had to drill two holes on the filter and break the filter carefully so as not to touch the main lens glass. The lens was checked thoroughly and re-calibrated. Sadly, I had now lost my rather pricey HD filter, to which they said it’s not even required that I use those expensive filters, as even a standard UV filters would suffice. All said and done, the damage wasn’t over. The cost of all this repair: $130 (Rs. 5100!). I had no choice but to pay up. I was just glad to see my most expensive lens back in my bag in perfect working condition.
But when you’re unemployed and trying be very careful with your spending, losing $130 plus the $50 I spent day before yesterday at the clinic simply felt like unnecessary waste of money. Sigh…
I walked to towards the entrance, past the security and straight to the baggage counter. Last year when I came to Marina Bay Sands, I couldn’t enter the casino because I got wet in the rain and I was wearing shorts. There was a dress code and the casino was only open to foreign tourists. This time around, I came dressed in formal wear and now Singaporeans could enter — after paying a $100 entry fee (which is ridiculous!).
No bags are allowed, and more strictly – no photography… at all… not even using your mobile. Which sucked, because you should have seen how the casino looked! Man, the chandelier inside was huuuge! Hundreds of slot machines, and other games with each one with scores of people playing.
I had never been to a casino before this, and had only seen them in Hollywood movies, so this was quite a revelation for me. I came with the intention of gambling a little bit, because hey, I didn’t have a job — so I thought I’d try my luck at winning some money! I even set aside a $100 just for this, but obviously I wasn’t going plonk it all down in one easy shot. Since I had never gambled before, I didn’t even know how to play most of the games. Slots was easy, pull a lever and hope you get match. Or at least that’s what I thought, because now, slot machines have gone digital — and they had way more buttons than a single lever.
You can play for as little as $1 and that made it easy for everyone to get in and begin. I converted $30 into chips/tokens and started with the Wheel of Fortune. Waged $10, placed my bets on a ‘x 10’ multiplier and a number. The lady spun the wheel and the needle stopped… at a number three stops after mine. Damn, there goes my first $10. The lady smiled and asked if I would want to try again. I thought, “Yeah, why not?” and put down another $10. She spun the wheel again, it stopped and she smiled again. I walked away after losing another $10. Sigh.
I then moved on to the slot machines and sat down at Queen slot machine. I played for $10, and ended up winning $17! I could have played for more but I decided to cash in my winnings and printed the receipt. Besides cards and tokens, the machines can use the same receipts to begin play. I had $17 with me and I started to wonder if my luck was improving. I walked past the roulette table and asked the attendant how the game worked. After he told how the game worked, I had to go and buy some more tokens as I obviously couldn’t place a receipt print on the table. So I got chips for $30 more.
I placed $10 as that was the minimum bet for this table (there were tables with $20 and $30 minimum bets too, larger payouts obviously). He spun the wheel in one direction and then the ball in the opposite direction. As the ball slowly lost momentum, it did the bounce – just as in the movies. But in my present real world scenario, it finally dropped into a number I didn’t select. So I tried again, and believe it or not, the ball stopped at a number just one spot away from mine.
So another $20 lost. So much for my hopes of being on a winning streak. I just played the slots after that. I won, wagered my winnings and then lost it all. At the end of it all, I had spent $60 and not really won anything big. I decided to stop.
I had no regrets though. It was an experience I smiled through. Looking around, it’s amazing how many people (most of whom were Chinese tourists) were spending so much money and I could only imagine how much money the casino was making — daily! You would think playing for as little as $1 is simple, harmless fun. But as I experienced it myself, human greed is what makes gambling harmful. And it’s as though the casinos have figured how a gambler’s mind works. There is a science to gambling and it’s a good bet to assume, very few ever make it out of a casino with more than what they spent in the hopes of winning big. It’s fair to see why gambling, to this day, remains controversial and banned in many places. Just because I stopped after losing $60, doesn’t mean others will. I even saw labourers from the sub-continent playing, and imagine how much they make in a month here in Singapore.
That said, there were the high rollers too. Some Korean guy came to the roulette table I was playing at and just dumped chips worth $1000. $1000, just like that! And to think above the two floors I could walk around on, were private rooms meant for even bigger players. Now think of the kind of money they’re playing for!
In the end, this place was not for a middle-class guy who spent the last eight years working and trying to save up as much as possible. I left the casino and collected my camera bag from the counter.
If you’re a foreign passport holder in Singapore, I still recommend visiting the casino at the Marina Bay Sands, the place is really well done up. The chandelier alone is worth seeing, it’s one of the world’s largest and it really is impressive.
When I came here last year, I made it all the way to the ticket counter, but only told be told that the SkyPark was closed due to rains that day. It rained earlier today as well, but fortunately the observation deck was open! I bought my ticket, which cost SG$20 (Rs. 800/$15/€12).
I don’t mind checking out the Singapore Flyer now… but I decided to keep it for next time. If you had to choose between the two, I’d recommend the Sands SkyPark over the Flyer any day.
I walked to Raffles Place MRT and boarded the train from there. Got down at Bugis, simply because I felt like walking through the area I first saw when I visited Singapore last year.
Had a shrimp burger meal from Wendy’s, one of my favourites from the chain. Also picked up some donuts from a local bakery in the same block and then took the MRT back to Aljunied.
Today was a good day. I was really happy with the photographs I clicked, though I do wish I got a bit of sunshine, which seems to be something of a rarity in Singapore.
Tomorrow begins the first of my three day F1 weekend.
Next posts in this series:
Singapore 2011: Day 5 – Chinatown, F1 Friday (Charice, Seungri and GD&TOP concerts)
Singapore 2011: Day 6 – F1 Saturday (Rick Astley, Shakira and Shaggy concerts)
Singapore 2011: Day 7 – Little India, F1 Sunday race, Linkin Park concert and Avalon Club
Leaving Singapore, and discovering certain truths about this famous city state
Previous posts in this series:
Singapore 2011: Day 3 – Bukit Timah and Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore 2011: Day 2 – Jurong Bird Park and… *ouch!*
Singapore 2011: Day 1 – Landing a second time; walking around CBD
Date: 1st October 2010
After two wonderful days in beautiful Langkawi, it was now time for the last leg of our journey. We reached Langkawi airport for our morning flight to Kuala Lumpur. After having our breakfast at Kenny Rogers Roasters (not a whole lot of options at the airport), we checked in and waited for our 11:45am flight.
We all sat together but Ramesh chose the window seat. The following are his photographs.
We landed at Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Terminal nearing 1pm and was out in 30 minutes. There were plenty of buses from KL LCCT to KL Sentral, which is the main transportation hub in Kuala Lumpur city.
After reaching KL Sentral, we then hired a taxi to where were staying.
After a 15 minute journey, we reached Berjaya Times Square. There is a metro service from KL Sentral to Berjaya Times Square, but with our luggage, we decided to just take a cab.
We chose Irsia after much deliberation and researching on the location. We made our booking for a triple room.
After freshening up and making our payments, we headed to Berjaya Times Square for lunch.
Berjaya Times Square is relatively old but still remains one of Malaysia’s biggest and popular shopping destinations. It’s pretty huge, with 7 floors of shopping — high ends brands in the lower floors and more affordable stuff in the higher up floors. There’s also a 5-star hotel, Berjaya Hotel — among other things.
We headed all the way up to the 10th floor to the food court. We chose our meals from a place selling ‘mock non-veg’ food.
By that I mean, stuff that looks like chicken and fish but are actually vegetarian because they are essentially soya-filled made to look like non-veg items.
When I mentioned “among other things” earlier…
We chose to stay at Irsia because it was close to a lot of places we wanted to go. One among them being Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur’s famous IT mall.
After crossing the road, it was a short walk to Low Yat
I couldn’t get to spend much time in Singapore’s IT malls to pick up the things I wanted, so I consoled myself assuming I could get them at Low Yat.
Sadly, the selection of camera tripods weren’t very exhaustive and I couldn’t really find everything I wanted. Also, more importantly, the prices we found for some items were far more than what we saw in Singapore. There isn’t an incentive for tourists either via a tax refund scheme like Singapore has with its GST refund and Thailand has with its VAT refund scheme.
After lingering around for nearly 30 minutes, we left.
We were soon on Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur’s popular shopping district.
A short walk from here is Jalan Alor, also nicknamed ‘Food Street’.
We walked into Suria but there was a sign saying at certain sections of the mall, photography is prohibited. So we just kept our cameras in and walked through the mall and out the main entrance of Petronas Towers.
Petronas is the Malaysia’s national oil company — and one of Asia’s largest companies. Petronas Towers is the company’s headquarters, thought I’m not sure if all 88 floors are Petronas’ offices.
The reason why we we didn’t want to go up to the skybridge is because, one, we were already late as the skybridge closes at 5pm and two, there is a particular method to which you need to get the tickets to visit the observation deck — which I’ll get to in a later post.
We attempted a portrait shot of all three of us in front of the Petronas Towes, but because we didn’t have a tripod with us, Ramesh fit the tripod on his camera and used his Kata bag to stand the camera.
The Malaysian MotoGP was happening the following week, and they had some competing superbikes on display.
After nearly an hour just staring at this beautiful building, we finally left the base of Petronas Towers.
The Petronas Towers are a symbol of modern day Malaysia. Just like Burj-Al-Arab signifies Dubai, and now Burj Khalifa, the Petronas Towers are an architectural icon. Inaugurated in 1998, even to this day, the Petronas Towers design stands as ‘modern’ – and yet, truly Asian in its influence as it can be. No visit to Malaysia is complete without having seen what was once the tallest building(s) in the world.
Even though Taipei 101 took over the throne of “Tallest building in the world” in 2004 (until Burj Khalifa did the same in 2010), the Petronas Towers are still one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world in my opinion. It shows how important good architecture is in creating a true global landmark. You can play the game of attempting to build the tallest structure in the world, but unless it looks good, the investment is futile.
If you disagree, just go around and ask people if they are aware of ‘Taipei 101’.
We walked back and through some of the malls in Bukit Bintang district.
While myself and Loiyumba found enough options for dinner, as was the norm on this trip, Ramesh didn’t. So I ordered what I wanted to eat, so that we could head to some place Ramesh could get his dinner.
It maybe a bustling place by night, but if you feel like staying amidst all the food, here are some hotels on Jalan Alor:
Once I got my takeaway, we headed back to our rooms only to stop at the 24-hour Subway store on Bukit Bintang where Ramesh picked up his dinner. (There’s also a 24-hour KFC on the same road)
We also pick up a few drinks from a convenience store on the way and had our dinner outside our hotel, where Irsia had put up a few tables for its guests.
Dinner over, we hit the bed early. Our plans were to go see the famous Batu Caves tomorrow, which we knew were on the outskirts of KL… which meant getting up a bit early.
So what was our first impression of KL? Not so good, to be honest. In fact, after a whirlwind 3 days in Singapore during a buzzing F1 weekend, it’s understandable we were a bit disappointed with Kuala Lumpur. But the fact is, things are a lot cheaper in KL, so it’s no surprise Malaysia’s capital city isn’t as glamourous as glitzy Singapore. Unfair comparison I’d say.
Oh well, we still had two more days in the city to change our minds about the place.
Other posts in this series:
Singapore & Malaysia 2010: Planning and preparing for the trip
Singapore 2010: Day 1 – Little India, CBD, Clarke Quay, China Town… and a lot of walking
Singapore 2010: Day 2 – Orchard Road, mall-hopping… and already shopping
Singapore 2010: Day 3 – Singapore Zoo, Marina Bay Sands; leaving Singapore for Penang
Malaysia 2010: Day 5 — Langkawi (Ferry ride from Penang, Cable car & Sky Bridge)
Malaysia 2010: Day 6 — Langkawi (Island hopping tour, Pantai Tengah beach, Night market)
Malaysia 2010: Day 8 — Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves, Petaling Street/China Town)
Malaysia 2010: Day 9 — Kuala Lumpur (KLCC Aquaria, Merdeka Square, KL Tower observation deck)