Cambodia and Cambodians

My thoughts on Cambodia and Cambodians…

Cambodia is a great country to visit; I highly recommend it to anyone visiting South East Asia. Despite the poverty, people are nice, friendly, and welcoming. I also think they are genuinely honest – of course you will sometimes bargain, but it is not comparable to other countries in South East Asia.

If you visit Cambodia, try to do it all, cities, villages, beach (I didn’t). Travel using buses, taxi, tuk-tuk, and boats if you can, and while exploring the country, try the Khmer cuisine. If you are an adventurer, and you meet the right tuk-tuk driver, you will even get to try real exotic food such as dog meat and local rice wine (2nd and 3rd picture).

Kampuchea as the locals call their country is an amazing place with plenty to do for all tastes.

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It is a safe bet if you are looking for a trip with adventure, History, architecture, food, or just looking for an inspirational trip.

Happy Chinese New Year

lunar-year-singapbyart.jpgI grew up in the West where Christmas is one of the most anticipated events; especially when it comes to the family reunion, gifts, and food.

Here in the Far East, or to be more precise in countries where there is a major ethnic Chinese population the equivalent of Christmas is the Chinese New Year. You most certainly have heard about it wherever you are reading this from.

You may have wonder as well does that mean Chinese do not follow the Gregorian calendar’ it’s ok to admit. Well the answer is Continue reading

Wedding in Hong Kong

One of the reasons I went to Hong Kong is to attend a wedding. The groom and the bride were two bankers, the reception took place at one of the Shangri La hotel, so my expectation of the event was pretty high.

The event started by each guests writing a short note to congratulate the couple, but the first cultural difference I notice was the gift tradition; indeed, in a Chinese wedding you’re supposed to give a red envelope containing monetary gift to the newly married couple. (I was aware of that, so I have my red envelope 🙂 ) A Chinese buddy of mine told me the red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.

As expected the wedding venue was magnificent, it consists of a small stage and several round tables across the room. The main table was easily recognizable since it was in front of the stage, but mostly because it was the only one with chairs covered in red cotton. Similar to above red is traditionally also a symbolic color of happiness in China.

Continue reading

United Kingdom of Singapore!

Hello guys and gals, I haven’t written anything for a while now (and I know you have missed miss so much). Well, work and else have kept me pretty busy over the past few weeks.

I know most of you are in the cold winter or preparing to get into it. You’ll be happy to know that in Singapore there is no such thing as winter; indeed, average temperature last week was 30°C… Sorry 🙂

Anyway today I thought I’d write about similarities I’ve seen between Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Having had a chance to live in London, I can say I somewhat feel the British way of life/doing things here in Singapore. I’m neither talking about the shitty weather (hehe, while writing current temp. is 28°C) nor the famous fish and chips (here there is way more food variety – check it out  ==> Food section of my blog). No, here, I’ll be talking about easy and recognizable legacy of Britain’s influence.

It start with the used of the English, haha, ok I know easy one…(but FYI English is the official language along with Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil)

More seriously the first obvious thing is left hand traffic; if you’re not used to it make sure to always check the road when crossing and remember to always look RIGHT, LEFT & RIGHT!

Another easy reference to the UK is the public transportation buses; you know the famous double-decker bus, you’ll find a bunch of them here. I must say they are not as stylish as the one in London. See for yourself below.

I think we all agree, London red double-decker buses are way sexier!

Also if you’re in Singapore, you could be a lucky one and get pick up by the famous hackney cab, you know the taxi limousine type.

In addition to the above, there are many others things that will remind you of the UK, like the strong fan base of the Premiership (England’s highest-level football league) especially Liverpool (Boooo!) but mostly as one would expect Manchester United (Yeaahhhh!).

PS: Next week I’m off travelling somewhere in Asia; stay tuned by Liking Singapbyart facebook page as I will be posting pictures in the blog but mostly on the page.