Ok, gonna post some thoughts on yesterday now. Well, as mentioned in the previous post, I am now at San Francisco where trams and hilly, winding roads are a common sight. The air here is damn refreshing as it's very cold (colder when it gets dark) but never really freezing if you get what I mean. The only thing is the humidity here is a little on the low side and as always I did not pack any moisturisers and now my lips are somewhat peeling along with a little cold sores but it doesn't matter.
The trip this time around is much more fun than the one last year when I also came to San Francisco. Because of that, I could actually navigate around the main Civic Center area (where I am now staying) easily. San Frnacisco just got a whole lot more familiar and I really feel at home this time. :) Furthermore, I made some new friends with the editorial people from magazines all over the region, from China to the Philippines, it's all good.
I must say I really love the weather here, the skies are so darn blue and the buildings all have this quaint and antiquated feel to them. I only wished that my SD card for my camera had a larger capacity, sheesh.
Anyhow, I will be posting some pictures of the trip when I get back as I forgot to bring along my card reader and hence I could not save them onto the laptop for the uploading.
The food here is the standard American fare but all in much bigger portions which really suited me as the Asian serving size at home really couldn't fill me up. I had a surprise during the dinner yesterday that I was the only one who really finished his food (Salmon Fillet, by the way, yum!) as well as a huge glass of Float, boy I feel sinful but oh well, it's not everyday that I can eat like this and it's all sponsored anyway, hahahaha.
This morning, I woke up really late for breakfast as I was so goddarn tired, I think it's the jetlag still working in. I looked at my watch and oh my, it's in the night over in Singapore, no wonder I feel really groggy. In fact, if I were to stay still for some minutes, my body would automatically shut down and I will doze off, it's that serious! O__o
Just visited this game development company called Flagship Studios which was formed by the team from Blizzard that produced the Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft series of games. Really exciting as they showed us the new game that they are still creating and the demo blew us away! The game details are not really set in stone yet but I liked what saw which was about Humanity fighting against demons that have overtaken Earth and have been busily terraforming the surface to becoming Hell. Good stuff. If some of you are interested, the game is called Hellgate: London (the game takes place in UK, duh), check it out if you want to.
Watching the SF Giants!!
Ok, as I am typing this, I am only but minutes away from meeting the other reporters and the staff from Flagship to watch a baseball game! This is the first time I am watching one and I am gonna take lots of shots to show you guys so watch out for them!
I asked about dinner details and they told me it will be hotdogs while watching the game!! O__o Guess you can't get any more American than that! And I surmise that the hotdogs are gonna be huge ones...hmmm.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Jason goes places!!
Ya, ya, like the whole lot of you would have already know, I am now out of Singapore and am in a trip that will be taking me to Korea and the US of A. In fact, I am typing this entry from the confines of my hotel room in San Francisco where I have just arrived some 3 - 4 hours ago while the other half of the world was in dreamland.
Ok, I did remember that I was supposed to post updates of my trip from Day 1 but since I couldn't manage to get Internet connections at my hotel in Korea on the first day due to reasons which I am going to elaborate below so I will waste no time and combine the highlights of what has happened during the past 2 days that I have been outta Singapore.
Day 1: Late Flight, Late Arrival @#$%%
The first day or rather the night before I arrived in Korea was a nightmare. The given schedule of the trip that was sent to me revealed the fact that I was actually the last of the journalists to reach Incheon International Airport. There were actually four other writers besides me and they were all there since the start of Saturday! This not only meant that they had an entire day to recover from the flight but also an entire day to get used to Korea a bit. Whereas yours truly had to (for reasons that were really beyond me) take a flight that is one day later than the rest and at a later time at that! (it was a 10.35pm flight). This meant that the moment that I touched down, it was only a matter of a few hours that I would need to get to the hotel (by a cab that they sponsors have booked for me), put down my stuff and off I go to the first stop of the press tour.
To make matters freaking worse was the fact that the immigration counter was grossly inefficient, the guy stamping those passports had to knn take his time and that resulted in a longer than normal queue with each person of the queue taking up to 2 - 3 minutes to clear the immigration. Multiply by 20+++ people and you get the drift...anyhow, needless to say, I was quite jumpy as there I was being held up indefinitely by one puny official and I was really unsure whether the cab driver will continue to wait for me. Hurriedly, I dialed the cab driver and told him to wait for me as well as calling up the person in charge of the tour and telling her that I will be pretty late...argh, so much for first impressions.
Anyway, the wait ended and I got my bags and dashed to the cab and unto the roads. One thing that I have to digress about is the fact that I really really love the temperature of these countries, it's totally like having an air-con perpetually on outdoors! I remember when I first went to San Francisco last year, I thought that the carpark was air-conditioned only to discover that the carpark is actually in open air and that the temperature was actually like this! Even my breath could condense into wispy mist whenever I breathe, and I spent a feew minutes marvelling in this. Damn bo liao but it was a totally fresh experience for me!
Ok, where was I? Oh, I was on the road already, confident that at least I could make it to the hotel on the dot. Of course, somethings have to go wrong when the cab (which was actually a minivan) stopped suddenly, jerked up from my day-dreaming, I looked up and to my horror, the whole freaking road was bloody jammed loh!! And the length of it was as far as the eye could see!!
"Siao liao loh, like that how??!!" I thought to myself...and I lifted my phone and called the person in charge (who is called Rachel Kim by the way, I really wonder how many Kims there are in Korea), and told her there was a jam and she surprisingly did not question further (which I found out later that Korean roads are famous for their horrendous jams, (it can really give you emotional scars especially when you are in a great rush, I kid you not. It was terrible!!) so much for Bangkok jams, because if you want something really hardcore, try the Korean ones...
Sexcapade in Seoul
I shan't bother and bore you readers with a point by point recount of my actual press tour unless it is something remotely interesting. What I will write here however, will be about things you never thought existed in the friggin' world. Have you ever thought about setting up a nightclub sans the working girls and yet you as a customer could actually shag one babe for free if you are lucky?? Aha, I can already hear hoots of curiosity from those ti ko ah pehs and bangalas prowling the alleys of geylang. Let me tell you old jocks that somebody in Korea has already thought of that.
The people of Hanbitsoft (who were the sponsors) brought us reporters to this club in Seoul called Mool (which means water in Korean, hence the term watering holes can also mean clubs and pubs. Nah, I am crapping. Watering Holes come from the Aussie slang, Billabong, but that's another story), anyway, to cut the story short, Mool is but one of the many clubs in Korea that do not need mamasans, whores and the entire works. You the paying customer, simply need to walk in and if you are a guy, the waiters there will actually pick up girls from the throng of people there and bring her to your cubicles or rooms (man, let me tell you, Korean babes are sweet although I didn't really do anything untoward...).
Sometimes, the girls may be not willing at all and they have every right to leave the area if it doesn't interest them but if they are suitably romanced and chatted around, they may stay and if the conversation were to get all hot and heavy, ooh boy the night is all yours mister! Of course, being downed with a gazzillion litres of force fed beer could also make one brave enough...(and they actually made me drink a concoction called Tornado which was basically beer mixed with whisky, my whole body was burning after a few sips, O__o)
Of course, faced with more than 10 men in a single room could unnerve almost any girl but I truly admire the guts of some of these Korean girls, some of them actually gamely stayed and a couple of them were truly eye candy. Of course, language expectedly was a problem and that prevented me from chatting with them about anything deeper than the weather, age, occupation and other superficial bullshit. There was even once that I had to switch to my crappy Japanese in order to converse with a Korean babe who happens to know Jap. Haha, take that Ismail, how's that for you??? :PP
You are a cute man, do you have a girlfriend?
Seriously, that's what two girls said to me!! Maybe it's my Singapore bengish copper hair...hmmm.
Well, that's all for today, more updates coming up! Gotta hit the sack now, long day tomorrow...
Ok, I did remember that I was supposed to post updates of my trip from Day 1 but since I couldn't manage to get Internet connections at my hotel in Korea on the first day due to reasons which I am going to elaborate below so I will waste no time and combine the highlights of what has happened during the past 2 days that I have been outta Singapore.
Day 1: Late Flight, Late Arrival @#$%%
The first day or rather the night before I arrived in Korea was a nightmare. The given schedule of the trip that was sent to me revealed the fact that I was actually the last of the journalists to reach Incheon International Airport. There were actually four other writers besides me and they were all there since the start of Saturday! This not only meant that they had an entire day to recover from the flight but also an entire day to get used to Korea a bit. Whereas yours truly had to (for reasons that were really beyond me) take a flight that is one day later than the rest and at a later time at that! (it was a 10.35pm flight). This meant that the moment that I touched down, it was only a matter of a few hours that I would need to get to the hotel (by a cab that they sponsors have booked for me), put down my stuff and off I go to the first stop of the press tour.
To make matters freaking worse was the fact that the immigration counter was grossly inefficient, the guy stamping those passports had to knn take his time and that resulted in a longer than normal queue with each person of the queue taking up to 2 - 3 minutes to clear the immigration. Multiply by 20+++ people and you get the drift...anyhow, needless to say, I was quite jumpy as there I was being held up indefinitely by one puny official and I was really unsure whether the cab driver will continue to wait for me. Hurriedly, I dialed the cab driver and told him to wait for me as well as calling up the person in charge of the tour and telling her that I will be pretty late...argh, so much for first impressions.
Anyway, the wait ended and I got my bags and dashed to the cab and unto the roads. One thing that I have to digress about is the fact that I really really love the temperature of these countries, it's totally like having an air-con perpetually on outdoors! I remember when I first went to San Francisco last year, I thought that the carpark was air-conditioned only to discover that the carpark is actually in open air and that the temperature was actually like this! Even my breath could condense into wispy mist whenever I breathe, and I spent a feew minutes marvelling in this. Damn bo liao but it was a totally fresh experience for me!
Ok, where was I? Oh, I was on the road already, confident that at least I could make it to the hotel on the dot. Of course, somethings have to go wrong when the cab (which was actually a minivan) stopped suddenly, jerked up from my day-dreaming, I looked up and to my horror, the whole freaking road was bloody jammed loh!! And the length of it was as far as the eye could see!!
"Siao liao loh, like that how??!!" I thought to myself...and I lifted my phone and called the person in charge (who is called Rachel Kim by the way, I really wonder how many Kims there are in Korea), and told her there was a jam and she surprisingly did not question further (which I found out later that Korean roads are famous for their horrendous jams, (it can really give you emotional scars especially when you are in a great rush, I kid you not. It was terrible!!) so much for Bangkok jams, because if you want something really hardcore, try the Korean ones...
Sexcapade in Seoul
I shan't bother and bore you readers with a point by point recount of my actual press tour unless it is something remotely interesting. What I will write here however, will be about things you never thought existed in the friggin' world. Have you ever thought about setting up a nightclub sans the working girls and yet you as a customer could actually shag one babe for free if you are lucky?? Aha, I can already hear hoots of curiosity from those ti ko ah pehs and bangalas prowling the alleys of geylang. Let me tell you old jocks that somebody in Korea has already thought of that.
The people of Hanbitsoft (who were the sponsors) brought us reporters to this club in Seoul called Mool (which means water in Korean, hence the term watering holes can also mean clubs and pubs. Nah, I am crapping. Watering Holes come from the Aussie slang, Billabong, but that's another story), anyway, to cut the story short, Mool is but one of the many clubs in Korea that do not need mamasans, whores and the entire works. You the paying customer, simply need to walk in and if you are a guy, the waiters there will actually pick up girls from the throng of people there and bring her to your cubicles or rooms (man, let me tell you, Korean babes are sweet although I didn't really do anything untoward...).
Sometimes, the girls may be not willing at all and they have every right to leave the area if it doesn't interest them but if they are suitably romanced and chatted around, they may stay and if the conversation were to get all hot and heavy, ooh boy the night is all yours mister! Of course, being downed with a gazzillion litres of force fed beer could also make one brave enough...(and they actually made me drink a concoction called Tornado which was basically beer mixed with whisky, my whole body was burning after a few sips, O__o)
Of course, faced with more than 10 men in a single room could unnerve almost any girl but I truly admire the guts of some of these Korean girls, some of them actually gamely stayed and a couple of them were truly eye candy. Of course, language expectedly was a problem and that prevented me from chatting with them about anything deeper than the weather, age, occupation and other superficial bullshit. There was even once that I had to switch to my crappy Japanese in order to converse with a Korean babe who happens to know Jap. Haha, take that Ismail, how's that for you??? :PP
You are a cute man, do you have a girlfriend?
Seriously, that's what two girls said to me!! Maybe it's my Singapore bengish copper hair...hmmm.
Well, that's all for today, more updates coming up! Gotta hit the sack now, long day tomorrow...
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Let's see if kimchi and burgers go together...
Ok guys, in a few hours time, I will be flying off to the land of the preserved cabbages and rabid national soccer fans. Yes, I am talking about Korea. Will be catching a late 1035pm flight via Korean Air and be touching down at 535am over there. Sounds xiong and I am darn sure it will be...
Anyhow, the trip will take me not only to Seoul but also San Francisco where I will be for a couple of days and then after which I will fly back to Korea and then back to Singapore on the 9th of April which is a Saturday. Right now, I am resting at home typing this inane entry because I have not blogged for the past few days and my fingers are getting the itch.
Went over to M1 just now to collect my CDMA phone, and to be frank about I am damn pissed about having to switch phones for the sake of communicating in Korea. Why oh why can't those Koreans just convert to GSM like the rest of the fine world??? The reason for the rage came from the fact that I have to pay extra just to rent this phone and the hullabaloo it caused when I discovered that my home plugs cannot fit the charger plug as apparently the charger itself was Korean made....knn! Ok, i will just say it...Kanina!!!
Basically I have to also say this,after repeated urging from all major sources, I managed to drag myself to the salon yesterday and got my hair trimmed and layered coz I am meeting clients there and who knows, a pretty Korean babe or two there so image is the keyword here. And as if the cut was not enough, I was somehow insane enough to have my bloody locks colored so ya, now I am sporting copperish hair. So the next time you all see me, it's me ok, not some random ah beng. Ok already, I can hear Ismail going "cough*bengwannabe*cough" so oh shut up Ismail...hahahha!!
Alrighty now, I will hopefully be doing a live coverage of my trip there in this blog if I got Net access, so stay tuned. In the mean time, I will be posting some radio friendly songs (to me that is) that I have heard over the radio and if I can access Mediacrap radio over there viz the Internet, maybe I won't be so homesick...keeping my fingers crossed.
By the way, if for some strange reason that you all would want to reach me while I am getting my behind nice and warm in Korean hospitality, you can dial this number - 002 + 82 + 10 2283 7882, got it? I know you all are smart learners lah. ;)
I, I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you
Since, since we've been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue
Let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad
Why, why some people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can't see
You'd never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
(Here's what I want us to do)
(repeat to fade):
Let's, we oughta stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
- Al Green, Let's stay together
Anyhow, the trip will take me not only to Seoul but also San Francisco where I will be for a couple of days and then after which I will fly back to Korea and then back to Singapore on the 9th of April which is a Saturday. Right now, I am resting at home typing this inane entry because I have not blogged for the past few days and my fingers are getting the itch.
Went over to M1 just now to collect my CDMA phone, and to be frank about I am damn pissed about having to switch phones for the sake of communicating in Korea. Why oh why can't those Koreans just convert to GSM like the rest of the fine world??? The reason for the rage came from the fact that I have to pay extra just to rent this phone and the hullabaloo it caused when I discovered that my home plugs cannot fit the charger plug as apparently the charger itself was Korean made....knn! Ok, i will just say it...Kanina!!!
Basically I have to also say this,after repeated urging from all major sources, I managed to drag myself to the salon yesterday and got my hair trimmed and layered coz I am meeting clients there and who knows, a pretty Korean babe or two there so image is the keyword here. And as if the cut was not enough, I was somehow insane enough to have my bloody locks colored so ya, now I am sporting copperish hair. So the next time you all see me, it's me ok, not some random ah beng. Ok already, I can hear Ismail going "cough*bengwannabe*cough" so oh shut up Ismail...hahahha!!
Alrighty now, I will hopefully be doing a live coverage of my trip there in this blog if I got Net access, so stay tuned. In the mean time, I will be posting some radio friendly songs (to me that is) that I have heard over the radio and if I can access Mediacrap radio over there viz the Internet, maybe I won't be so homesick...keeping my fingers crossed.
By the way, if for some strange reason that you all would want to reach me while I am getting my behind nice and warm in Korean hospitality, you can dial this number - 002 + 82 + 10 2283 7882, got it? I know you all are smart learners lah. ;)
I, I'm so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
'Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you
Since, since we've been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me be the one you come running to
I'll never be untrue
Let's, let's stay together
Lovin' you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad
Why, why some people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can't see
You'd never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
(Here's what I want us to do)
(repeat to fade):
Let's, we oughta stay together
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
- Al Green, Let's stay together
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