Babe, U R too hot!!!

Pic source: happybeingdoodles.com

End of March, just as when I thought April would be cooler, I was totally wrong!!! April was even worse!!! (Straits Times said March 2024 was the warmest on the record - capping 10-month streak of the temperature record).

Ching ming festival (tomb sweeping day) fell on 4th April this year but few weeks before that, people had already started preparations for tomb-sweeping and ancestral worship. Usually people would offer the death some money and things as they believed that the deceased would receive it in the are world. Therefore, lots of burning happened and it would increase the heat temperature especially in South East Asia countries. 

A week ago I heard the news that Thailand was facing very high temperature too, especially in Bangkok, the metropolitan city. I checked with my friend who stayed there and he said, even in Chiang Mai, where he was located at that moment, the heat did not spare the area. 40 degree celsius was not enough, there was air pollution too as there was wildfire nearby the area. 

Pic source: Accuweather - Strait Times

And since the beginning of the April, everyone here could feel the heat too. Many news were reported, from the very high level of UV in the island and what to do with it, to the extreme heat or heatwave that was going on in South East Asia countries (the above picture was posted only 2 days ago). 

From the personal experience, this was like a living hell. I mean, I was usually the type of person that could bear the normal heat. I mean, it was common to face 30 plus degree temperature in a country like Singapore and I was born in Jakarta and stayed there for seventeen years, so it was not a very big deal. 

But now, it was really becoming so much unbearable!!! I used to have a morning walk in MacRitchie Reservoir because despite the sun, there were trees covering most of the hiking trails. Only when came out, then there was not much protection from the sun. I went once sometimes in March and I found that the heat was too much. The water that I usually brought and topped up, was not enough to cool down my body. That was why I had stopped going, especially when the news reported that March's temperature was breaking the records high.

Until towards end of April, I thought, this was not the way. No matter what, I still had to have some exercise. So my brain had some thinking. Hahaha... Perhaps it was not on much use earlier :P Lol. Then why not just walk around where I stayed??? It was a blessing to live in area like this. It was not far from the man-made river and park, but at least, there was such a place. 

I thought of cycling in the evening. I finished work quite early and could reach home by 6pm. However, the sun was still shining bright at 6pm and the heat was still felt emerging from the asphalt cover. I did not think it was a good idea. I was even wondering why people was still going for jog in such hour. First heat, and second, the carbon monoxide produced by the trees when the night appeared.

One of my morning walk/run

And when I had difficulty to sleep after waking up for pee at dawn, so I thought, why not I go for walk early in the morning before I started my day? And that solved my problem. So now, when I woke up at 6am, I got up and moved my body around the neighborhood. The earlier the better. Like to start before 6am was better as there would be lesser people, lesser noise, but the sky was darker, sometimes could be eerie when you were the only one there, but I had to finish and went back home before 7am as I had to leave to work by 8am. I loved it!!! During weekend, I gave myself longer time and route to go plus breakfast date with my hubby. It was perfect!!!

But afternoon and evening time were still unbearable. Even when I lie down on my bed with wall fan blowing towards me, or when I watched TV sitting on the sofa with ceiling fan blowing from the top, my body was wet from all the sweat, as if the heat could penetrate all over the house. And it was not me who felt it this way. It was for everyone. Everyone complained about the heat.

My office centralized air conditioner was very cold (I even had to wear jacket inside the office). But when I went out for a walk after lunch, wahhhh.... the sun was burning, I could feel the heat penetrated underneath my skin. Often times I chose to take the lift and walk through underpass (went for a longer route) rather than crossing the traffic light in front of me directly under the sun. I think, even in such few meter distance and seconds, the UV light could harm the skin.

The air, it was hot too!!! Suffocating!!!

And with the flow of cold and hot air in and out the building, people were easily getting sick. Flu, cough, and fever. You could see many people wearing masks especially when commuting in public transports like MRT and bus. 

Water! We had to drink much water, enough to take back all the sweat that we expelled from our body.

I have no idea how long more we have to endure such heat. I really miss the Covid time, when people could not travel and just stay within their country where they were. With less emission from the planes, factories, cars, and so on, the world was cooler and healthier. I do not know what the world will become. If this kind of weather went on all the time, where human being would stay???

Outer Mongolia - Experiencing Mongolian Tent or Ger (Part 3)

Inside the local Mongolian ger - Bayangobi

When coming to Mongolia, it was a must-try thing to experience living inside the Mongolian tent (commonly said ger). In our itinerary it included 3 different places for us to stay inside the Mongolian tourist camp. All the 3 sizes of ger we stayed were different, letting us experiencing different feeling, although the number of people remained the same (max. 4 pax in one ger).

1. Bayangobi Tourist Camp

Bayangobi Tourist Camp - Outer Mongolia

This was the first tourist camp we stayed - Bayangobi Tourist Camp. Ger were set in few rows. Depending on your luck, those stayed near the toilet was considered good location as the toilet cum bathroom was located in separate area. Especially for those who often visited toilet break at nighttime, like me. But if your ger was too far from toilet, worry not, as you still could do your business around your ger (only small business please....) hahahaha.... :P

Outside our ger - Bayangobi Tourist Camp

This size of ger was just nice for 4 of us. Not too big and not too small. As you could see at the below picture, in the middle they usually installed the manual room heater (burned using woods). That night the coldness was bearable, and therefore, no heater was required. The blanket was enough to keep us warm.

Panoramic view inside our ger - Bayangobi Tourist Camp

In each tourist camp they provided us with separated toilet and bathroom for men and women, dining hall, and souvenir shop. Bigger one was equipped with bar. Below was the typical souvenir shop seen all over Mongolia (the wheels were installed so when they moved around, this portable shop could be pulled up by few yaks or cows).

Mongolian style souvenir shop - Bayangobi Tourist Camp - Mongolia

The toilet plus bathroom was surprisingly maintained really well. They employed a worker to standby there the whole day to ensure that the toilet was clean at all times - to ensure the floor was dry and clean, toilet paper was available, and so on.

Toilet plus bathroom at Bayangobi Tourist Camp - Mongolia

The bathroom was also equipped with water heater. However, due to the limitation of the heater system size, it could only satisfy the first few users. When the hot water had finished, the next user had to wait for a while before the heater started warming the water back again. That also including the availability of the water. Those who taking bath later, most probably they would run out of water. Unfortunately my ladies friends and I were among those people who took bath late.

I had to use the water drip by drip to clean my body, as if the water came from heaven, really had to treasure them very well. Luckily I managed to clean myself, even washing my hair and everything. In place like this, clean water was really a treasure and not for taken for granted!!!

Had a wonderful time at Bayangobi desert - Mongolia

This area was located not far from desert. We were brought there to experience desert life with its sand dunes.

With the Mongolian camel :) - Bayangobi Desert

Riding camels in a group - Bayangobi Desert - Outer Mongolia

Riding camel and visiting the local herdsman ger was also another activity offered. We sat there and were given opportunity to ask question regarding their nomadic lives, a life that was really different with what we were having right now.

Grassland nearby Bayangobi Tourist Camp (Photo courtesy: Jack Lim)

Beautiful nature surrounding Bayangobi Tourist Camp (Photo courtesy: Jack Lim)

Nearby the camp you could find the beautiful grassland as per shown at the photos above. From afar, the place looked like having nothing, but when we got closer, it turned out that the grass was not flat, but it looked more like small hills on top of another and decorated with small flowers.

Beautiful and quiet place to do meditation :D - Bayangobi, Outer Mongolia

Yoga too... :P - Bayangobi, Outer Mongolia

My friends and I could not hold ourselves but posing with this beautiful nature :D

Before sleeping :D Inside our ger at Bayangobi Tourist Camp

At night we spent our time together inside our ger tasting Chinggis Vodka with their chips, chit chatting about anything else that came up out of our minds. Even when the electricity was gone, we had our torch light ready within our hand to brighten up the tent. And yes, after series of drinking, all of us took our small business just outside our ger, instead of heading all the way to the beautiful toilet nearby... Hahahahaha.... (vodka effect) :P

2. Anar Tourist Camp

Panoramic view of the Anar Tourist Camp - Outer Mongolia

Endless photo session near the beautiful Orkhon River - Kharkhorin, Outer Mongolia

With the background of my favorite animals and surroundings (mountains and river) - Orkhon River

We moved on to Kharkhorin the next day and we stayed at the above tourist camp. The location was good as it was very near from the Orkhon River. The view was simply natural, beautiful, and amazing!!! All your troubles were sure gone away after quenching the nature thirst over this place!!! Because it worked on me!!! :)

Circling the Stupa on top of the hill - Anar Tourist Camp - Kharkhorin, Outer Mongolia

Posing with Mongolian students at the Monument for Mongol States - Kharkhorin, Outer Mongolia

It was within walking distance to reach the river, as well as to reach the Monument for Mongol States. We had a short hike to reach the top. Despite the rain, we all reached all over the place and enjoyed the view so much!!! :)

Inside our ger - Anar Tourist Camp - Kharkhorin, Mongolia

This time our ger was quite small though among the three. It was just nice as the weather was colder at night.

Inside the decorative dining room with my local guide at the background - Anar Tourist Camp

We had 3-course set meal for both lunch and dinner. They served continental dishes. Loved them all! :)

Turning the manual heater inside our ger - Anar Tourist Camp - Kharkhorin, Mongolia

We even had to ask the staff to turn the heater inside our room. Unlike other ger, luckily we had Bhutanese lady here who knew how to control the heat from this manual heater. Our room was kept warm until we slept because of her skill :D Thank you Sangay!!! :)

Waiting for the sunrise to come at 4.30 am - Anar Tourist Camp

I was awoken few times early in the morning as my friends wanted to see the sunrise. We were not sure when the sunrise began. That was why I woke up as early as 4 am and only to find the sky was still dark.

Sunrise at Anar Tourist Camp (Photo courtesy: Peggy)

Sunrise at Anar Tourist Camp (Photo courtesy: Peggy)

I finally gave up when it started to rain. I thought, would the sun still come when it was raining?? Moreover the friend who wanted to see sunrise at the first place was sleeping all the time. Hahaha... I got lazy and decided to continue to sleep.

Sunrise with the rainbow at Anar Tourist Camp - Kharkhorin, Mongolia (Photo courtesy: Peggy)

Only the next morning after having breakfast our tour leader said that there was a rainbow. Our tour mate, Peggy, managed to capture the sunrise and the rainbow. She had kindheartedly sharing the pictures with us. And I could not wait to share them with you all here on this post. Hope you enjoy the posts so far :)

Outer Mongolia - Introduction (Part 1)

Chinggis Statue - Outer Mongolia

One fine afternoon I had tea with Susan at Serangoon NEX. Suddenly she asked me if I was interested to join the tour to Outer Mongolia. I knew her not so long ago. She loved travelling and had traveled to lots of places around the world. She did many research on travel lobang during her free time and it was one of her enjoyment. She told me about a travel agent that offered this tour, and especially for this, they even chartered a flight for this destination. I asked her about the price and everything, and agreed to her almost immediately.

Lovely view of sheeps and goats living in harmony :) - Beautiful Mongolia!!!

23 years ago I visited the Inner Mongolia, which was a part of China. It was the my first time experiencing the local China tour from Beijing, together with my schoolmates. It was also my first time experiencing desert, grasslands, drinking horse milk, and staying a night inside the Mongolia tent (ger).

A place rich in nature - Outer Mongolia

I thought, well, it was 23 years ago, and I had never been to Outer Mongolia before. Though their lifestyle might be similar, but I was sure that there must have differences between the two countries, especially under different governance. But what attracted most to me from this tour, was that the itinerary included the visit to 3 different Buddhist temples. For the past few years I had grown much interest in visiting different Buddhist temples from all over the world. I just felt I was very lucky and had great fate in visiting those places, to pay respect to the guru Buddha, and feel at peace.

With travel buddies exploring Mongolia!!! :)

After both of us signed up, our two Bhutanese friends also showed their interests in visiting this country and four of us were just nice became the travel buddy for this trip, sharing our room and ger,  exploring places, and spending most of our time together.

The capital of Outer Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar city

For the start, let me share a little bit information about Mongolia (also known as North or Outer Mongolia). The capital, and also their largest city is Ulaanbaatar.

Vast and empty - Outer Mongolia

At more than 1.5 million sq km, Mongolia is the 18th-largest and the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world, with population of only 3 million people. Wow!!! Can you imagine??? Compare it to Singapore that has only 723 sq km with almost 6 million population!!! :D

Ger at country side - Outer Mongolia

30% of Mongolia population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. The majority of its population believes in Buddhism, where the second biggest one believes in nothing (bon - Shamanism). Tibetan Buddhism spread in Mongolia in 16th century and by early 1900s, almost one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks.

Gandan Tegchinlen Monastery in Ulaanbaatar - Mongolia (Main center of Mongolian Buddhism)

However in 1911, after the collapse of Qing dynasty, Mongolia declared its independence and shortly came under the control of Soviet Union, whom had aided to achieve the country's independence from the hand of China. And in the late 1930s, the regime had sadly closed almost all of Mongolia's over 700 Buddhist monasteries and killed at least 30,000 people, of whom 18,000 were lamas. With it, the number of Buddhist monks dropped drastically from 100,000 in 1924 to only 110 in 1990. With the fall of communism in 1991, the country had managed to restore the religious practice back. It also allowed other religions (Christian and Catholics) to spread in the country. (Source: wikipedia.org)

Ovoo or sacred stone heaps in Outer Mongolia

Ovoo are sacred stone heaps used as altars or shrines in Mongolia folk religious practice. It is made of rocks with woods. It is often found on top of the mountains and high places. We saw it often throughout our journey. It serves as site to worship heaven and lesser gods led by Shaman, and also for Buddhist ceremony. When traveling, it is common to see people circling it three times on clockwise direction with a hope of having a safe journey.

Mongolians

Their official language is Mongolian and their current second language is English (replacing Russian - although Russian language is still frequently spoken there). And surprisingly, Korean language has also gained popularity there as ten of thousands Mongolians work in South Korea. The influence of Korea in the country is very significant as well. Many Korean companies, restaurants, stuffs, food and beverages, are there.

Common industrious area just outskirts of Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia

Coal mining outskirts the Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia

Their two biggest economic activities are in minerals mining (coal, gold, copper, etc.) and agriculture (herding as well). The country produces second biggest Cashmere in the world (after China).

Ulaanbaatar city view from Zaisan Hill - Outer Mongolia

The contrast of high rise buildings with traditional tent located at the surrounding of Ulaanbaatar city - Mongolia (Photo courtesy: Sherab Tenzin)

According to our local guide, in city like Ulaanbaatar, the citizen must buy land or own apartment, while in countryside they can stay every where and move around wherever they like. The rental cost of 2-bedroom apartment in city area is around USD$500/month. As for the ger, it is usually stayed by people with lower income. They do not pay for central heat as it is not available. They still use things like wood, clothes to burn and generate heat for them to keep warm, especially in winter times. That is why the air pollution has become more prominent in Ulaanbaatar as many ger set up surrounding the city, not yet those mining activities that is also happening not far from it. And therefore, many people prefer staying in smaller town to avoid the air pollution.

Mixture of housing and ger (Mongolia tents) at countryside - Mongolia

How Mongolian 'chop' or reserve their plot of land (using half-cut tyre) so that other people will not occupy the space

Mongolian government gives 700 sqm land in small village for free to all citizens. If nearer to Ulaanbaatar, they are given only 500 sqm. Many have used it to plant vegetable or rent it to company. For nomadic people, during winter time they will stay in front of big mountains to protect them from wind. During summer they will move four to five times depending on where the grass grow.

Livestock everywhere you go in Mongolia

Generally Mongolian eat lots of meat like beef, mutton and chicken with very less fish. During summer they eat meat lightly and eat more dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, curd, and so on. While in winter they eat more heavy food to survive (meaning more meat). Many of them depend their income from cashmere (sheep wool), meat and dairy production. People from city buy all those products from them. So they are all food self-sufficient and able to consume healthier local products.

Nadaam Festival celebrating 3 manly sports in Mongolia - wrestling, horse racing and archery (Photo courtesy: journeyinmongolia.com)

They celebrate 2 big festival every year. First one is Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year) - usually in end of January or February, and another one is Naadam Festival - celebrated every summer throughout Mongolia across every province, in most towns and villages. They celebrate their three manly sports, the proud of Mongolians, which are: horse racing, wrestling, and archery.

Well, hope with that information, you can imagine how Mongolia as a country look like and how their people live their life. More about the places will come at next posts :)

World Cup 2018 and Its Life Lessons

FIFA World Cup - Russia 2018

Since June everyone all over the world had been excitingly welcoming the World Cup 2018, after one of the world historic event - Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's visit and summit in Singapore had over. I had missed both important events (the summit and the world cup's opening ceremony) as I was still on holiday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Throughout few decades of my life I had never shown any interest in football, ever!!! But since most of my Bhutanese young friends loved football so much (many had so much passion in it and played them very well - including what I had witnessed myself during my trip in Sri Lanka not long ago on how they would purposely travel to another city just to participate in a match, play it under the rain, etc.), plus my brother and nephews' great interest on some football teams, I had slowly been developing the interest towards football.

Final FA Cup 20 May 2018 - Chelsea VS Man United (Pic source: Google.com)

I watched my first football match with interest back on May 20th, 2018 - the FA Cup final Chelsea VS Manchester United - at my brother's house, when I stayed there over night. My brother supported Chelsea while my nephew supported Manchester United. I was waiting for my friend to reach my brother's house as she participated in running event that night. To be honest, I had zero knowledge of football. So many times I would comment unnecessarily which at the end, irritated my brother. Hahahahahaha..... :P

And now, this World Cup games.

It was very expensive to subscribe the football channel in Singapore, especially for this World Cup event. So we did not have an access to watch the games conveniently at home. During dinner meeting with friends, she told us her experience of searching the free streaming match and she ended up listening to other then English languages comments given by the commentator, i.e. Arabic, Thai, etc.

World Cup time!!! With Durian :P

However, sometimes, our local TV channel (Okto) broadcast the match (not regularly though), and I watched my first match on Sunday, 24th June, England VS Panama. I still had no knowledge about football so someone suggested me to just see if the player made goals or not. Hahahaha.... And instead of having beer while watching, I had durian (if you had durian, no alcohol was allowed to be consumed). And from that match, I knew few players such as: Harry Kane (the 25 years old English's footballer who made 3 goals on that match), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United player ), and John Stones (Manchester City player who made 2 goals).

Then followed with Japan VS Senegal match. I watched it on streaming online this time since it was not broadcast in local TV. Thanks to someone for giving me the link so that I could watch it on my laptop at home :) From this match, I also learned to know few good Japanese players like Takashi Inui, Keisuke Honda, cool-looking Maya Yoshida, and Shinji Kagawa. Although the result was draw 2-2, they managed to go on the next match.

So, from that day onward, I tried to watch one match per day (due to the time difference I could not wait and watch the 2 am game here). Sometimes hubby taught me some rules on the game too, which increased my knowledge a little. Many times I asked around what people thought about the result of the upcoming game like which team would win, how many scores they would make, and so on.

Friends were helping up in broaden my knowledge too by saying who were good from the team, and associated the country with its good players, e.g. Argentina - Messi, Portugal - Ronaldo, Brazil - Neymar, French - Griezzman, etc. Hehehehe... :D From Facebook post I also knew some of the good-heart players, e.g. Messi,

Some matches were good, in the sense you could see how strong the team, e.g. on Korea match against Germany. The Korea defenders were defending very well and the goalkeeper did his job very well on the match too. There you could also see how weak the Germany striker. They had so many opportunities to make a goal but they could not use it well. Some games were too much of fighting, bringing the players down, injuring players neck, head, legs, and so on, and not worth watching.

Many games were unpredictable. Those who people thought supposed to win, they lost, and who supposed to be weak, they won, even after the 90 minutes game had over (Korea VS Germany match).

I learned new things on every match as I was really having 0 knowledge on it. Just like yesterday's match - Russia VS Spain. In this match, when the result was draw, they were given 30 minutes to play and see which team could score a goal and win. In the event they both did not score any goal, both teams would do penalty kick - 5 kicks were given and those scored the most would win).

World Cup's betting (Pic source: Singaporepools.com.sg)

Apart from it, I also learned about the betting system from Singapore Pools. Hahahaha.... I haven't put my money on any bet so far, but usually the World Cup event was the only event most Singaporean would put their money and bet on it. Like from the above figure, I had to ask my brother what was the figures showing. There were many bet type available too, e.g. Pick the score, total goals, halftime, halftime-fulltime, etc. P.S. I do not encourage you to bet, to be interesting in betting, and other kind of betting interest by posting about it here. I just wanted to share what I learned from this World Cup event.

World Cup 2018 - Round 16 Chart (Pic source: CBS Sports)

So we are now at the Round 16 match. Many good teams have been taken out like Portugal, Argentina, and Spain. Will more good teams be out from this World Cup??? Hopefully not. And which team you predict to be World Cup champion this time round?? Many of my friends hope that Brazil and England would be one of the champions. But with so many went out so far, it would be hard to predict right??

That how the World Cup lessons apply to our lives journey. So many things are unpredictable. No matter how good the team or the person is, sometimes luck (or fate, or karma) is still playing parts, which makes everyone undergoes ups and downs in life. No one experiences only the good things or only the bad things in life. It is all mixing up like roller-coaster ride.

Life lessons from World Cup (Pic source: Pinterest.com)

Some of the important lessons are how we can accept all the situation bravely and wisely? How we can learn from the things in the past so that we can have a better journey towards our future? How can we accept failure in life? How can we get up from it and move on? How can we live our dreams?

We face praise and disappointment. We face so much pressure from society. If we are good, they expect us to perform good all the time, or even better performance. If we are not good, they may despise and look down on us. While at the end, it is our own life and we are in control of it. What type of life we prefer may differ from what society expects us for having. Can we strive and get hold on it?

You may not think much as I mentioned here when it comes to World Cup, but these thoughts just appear as I write. Hope that we can have enough strength to choose the life we want to live, and not living life from other's expectation. Be you, be yourself. Be me, be myself, no matter what.