2nd Year Anniversary!

We are 2 years old!!!! Just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary on 19 Nov 11. Thank you everyone for joining us in our joyous celebration, especially Gil and Mr Wong who came all the way down from KL just to join us! :)

Honestly, we did not have much pictures. I was drinking since 8pm when the food arrived, and did not stop till 1am. It was a good, tipsy night! I think the only 2 pictures we took were on Mel's phone.

We catered a 9-course dinner so that our guests/friends can taste our local delights and gave each of the guest a free beer to join us.

Some people may wonder why did we spend so much money on a celebration? Honestly, our profit margin is not high (I am not sure about other hostels) and this celebration itself, has cost me about $600-S$700 (including the free drinks that I gave to my staff). Well, I think it is an achievement to have survived for 2 years in this dog-eat-dog world.  This is also sort of like a staff party whereby most of my staff came back to the hostel to eat and drink. Quite a good timing for them to relax since most of them are in the midst of their exams.

Well, nothing much to write about since it is just a eating, drinking night. Hope to see you guys during ZoukOut! :)

Iain and I, and a few of my previous guests who are now staying in KL should be coming. Hope to see you guys!

Singapore World's First

Was bored one day and just googling about Singapore. I was quite amazed to see certain facts that I did not know about a country which I have stayed in the past 20+ years! Yes, I am not that old, I am still in my mid twenties. :)

• The Guinnes Book of Records named the old Kandang Kerbau Maternity Hospital as the hospital where most babies were born in a year. In 1966, 39,835 babies were delivered.

Well, I was born in Malaysia (Johor Bahru) but I know that many of my elementary school classmates are born in KK Hospital. I guess since Singapore has one of the highest population density in the world, it is not all that surprising. 

• World’s Highest Man-Made Waterfall - With a fall of 30m, Singapore houses the world’s highest man-made waterfall. This is located within the aviary at the Jurong Bird Park which was opened in January 1971.

I just went to the Jurong Bird Park 4 days ago and saw the waterfall. Well, I will say that there is nothing very special about it. No much comments on this.

• World’s First Night Zoo – Found in the north western part of Singapore, The Night Safari is the world’s first night zoo, spreading over 40 hectares of land. It was opened in May 1994 and entertains about 900,000 visitors a year.

The Night Safari is actually quite interesting. Basically it is like a night zoo but some of the animals are more active because they are nocturnal. However, it really depends on luck because if the animals do not stand where the spot lights are, you basically cannot see anything. The Creature of the night show is a must see if you go to the Night Safari!

• World’s Largest Orchid Display - The National Orchid garden within theSingapore Botanic Gardens has the world’s largest orchid display with more than 60,000 plants.

The Orchard Garden in the Singapore Botanical Gardens also has an area where they showcase plants in temperate climate. After walking around for a couple of hours in the heat, it is really refreshing to go into the greenhouse where it is air-conditioned! :)

• Worlds Largest Fountain - The Fountain of Wealth at Suntec Cityentered in the Guinnes Book of Records in 1998 as the World’s Largest Fountain. It has a base area of 1,690 sq m and from this base is a four-legged bronze frame that weighs 85,000kg. Water from the fountain shoots up to as high as 30m.

This fountain has laser display on certain nights (can't seem to find out which nights they have the display). Have been there during the display a couple of years ago and remember it as being quite beautiful. Apparently, it also brings you good luck to walk 1 round around the fountain while touching the water.

• World’s Fastest “SMSer” - Kimberly Yeo, a 23-year-old Business Administration student, took only 43.24 seconds to sms “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrsaalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” That earned her a spot in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s fastest SMSer.

This is a bit weird. I know that Singaporeans love to text message more than anything else. We will rather spend 20 smses than talking on the phone for 5 minutes. Kids in Singapore also start getting handphones when they are still in elementary school.  Maybe Ms Yeo got lots of training! 

F1 Drinking Night!

Dear all,

I should really update my blog more often! We bought a portable BBQ pit and had a BBQ a few weeks ago, unfortunately, the pictures are with Sean (a colleague) and he still has not sent me the pictures until now. Thus, when he finally (if ever) send me the pictures, I will post the pictures on the blog!

This entry is really about an F1 drinking party that we had about 2-3 weeks ago. Well, after I got Gerald to help me doing the operations, I had a lot more time to think about events to organise and F1 is one of those event! Thank you Gerald, if not, this event will not be possible.

I started off the night by giving a free bottle of Gin to guests of the hostel. Someone has to start the ball rolling right? Beers are also sold by the bucket which is cheaper than if you buy individually (which is cheaper than if you buy in pubs/clubs). This has to be encouraging to a certain extent. But let me emphasize, we encourage people to drink responsibly.

Most of us were drinking outside the hostel at the beginning.

After a couple of hours when everyone is getting a bit tipsy, we decided to play a drinking game: Ring of Fire. For those who did not know what game it is, it is basically a drinking game where everyone will most probably get drunk pretty quick.

First, you lay all the playing cards in a circle (hence the name). Next, everyone will take turns to pick a card from the circle. Whoever break the ring will have to finish whatever he/she has in his bottle/cup.

Each individual card will have a specific meaning (Eg. Girls drink, Boys drink, Rule card where the rule master has to set a rule where everyone has to follows, if not, he/she will have to drink, Point to the Sky where the last person to point to the sky will have to drink... etc etc)

We ended the night at around 12 midnight. I was really tired. Think I am getting old and I really can't stay up as late as I used to. Anyway, it was quite a successful night! Thank you everyone for attending the drinking night! We will have more of these to come! :)

Drop Inn Surfing!!!

Wavehouse in Sentosa Island, SIngapore, has been opened for about 2 years since 2009. It opened at around the same time that Drop Inn was opened, but I only had time to go there for the first time on 9 Oct 2011. Well, theoretically, I had been there a couple of times before, but it was just for drinking purposes because they had a promotion that you get a buy-1-get-1-free for everything with RedBull! :) Being slightly alcoholic a good host, of course, I had to bring my guests there to take advantage of such a good deal, especially in an expensive place in Singapore!

9 Oct 2011, it was the day that I tried surfing in Wavehouse for the first time. I must say that I was really scared. Since I was a kid, I was never really an athlete. I was so afraid that I will embarrassed myself! That explains why I did not take any pictures of myself (actually I do, it is just that I looked really really fat, and I do not want another person to comment that I look pregnant).

 That is Camilla trying it on the board! However, she seems to think that bodyboarding is more fun than surfing. Well, I did not try bodyboard, so I have no idea!

Thanks Phuong for these beautiful pictures at the expense at yourself! You helped us to take so many pictures, that is why I do not have many pictures of you. 

This is our group at Wavehouse! It was a bit dark, but because this is the only picture I had of the whole group, I had to put it up! :)

Haikal is my friend is has been to Wavehouse 5-6 times (Accordingly to him). He is the most pro among us! He is also the one who organised this surfing trip!

Simon, I am so sorry I put up a picture of you falling. It was one of the only pictures Phuong had of people falling, thanks for the sacrifice! It is greatly appreciated!

Well, I think this is overall a good trip. The only bad thing is that we had to wait a couple of hours for our turn. Wavehouse does not allow booking over the phone, and by the time we get there, we only managed to get the last slot (10pm-11pm). Iain and I got the membership (which only lasts for 3 months) that gives us a buy-1-hour-get-1-hour-free deal! Each hour costs S$30. Well, it is not exactly the cheapest thing to do, but it is definitely an experience! I have tried surfing (quite horribly) in Bali and wakeboarding in Singapore, and I think that the feeling is more similar to wakeboarding compared to surfing. Even the controlling of the board is similar to wakeboarding!

Great experience and everyone had fun!!!! By the way, we are having a BBQ this Friday (14 Oct 11), join us if you can! :)

How to Choose Accommodation in Singapore?

Mid Autumn Festival 2011

Mid Autumn Festival is a Chinese Festival which is widely associated with playing with lanterns, eating mooncakes and drinking tea. It is celebrated on 15 Aug of the lunar calender where the moon is the biggest and the brightest.

Story on Mid Autumn Festival

According to Wikipedia, Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival is strongly associated with the legend of Houyi and Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality. Tradition places these two figures from Chinese mythology at around 2200 BCE, during the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huangdi. Unlike manylunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e simply lives on the moon but is not the moon herself.

There are many variants and adaptations of the legend of Chang'e that frequently contradict each other. However, most versions of the legend involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi, the Archer, an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent, and an elixir of life.

One version of the legend states that Houyi was an immortal and Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the palace of the Jade Emperor (theEmperor of Heaven, 玉帝 pinyin:Yùdì) as an attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (the Jade Emperor's wife). Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from heaven. They were forced to live on Earth. Houyi had to hunt to survive and became a skilled and famous archer.

At that time, there were ten suns, in the form of three-legged birds, residing in a mulberry tree in the eastern sea. Each day one of the sun birds would have to travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe, the 'mother' of the suns. One day, all ten of the suns circled together, causing the Earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to use his archery skill to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life. Emperor Yao advised Houyi not to swallow the pill immediately but instead to prepare himself by praying and fasting for a year before taking it.^[3] Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter. One day, Houyi was summoned away again by Emperor Yao. During her husband's absence, Chang'e, noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, and discovered the pill. Chang'e swallowed it and immediately found that she could fly. Houyi returned home, realizing what had happened he began to reprimand his wife. Chang'e escaped by flying out the window into the sky.^[3]

Houyi pursued her halfway across the heavens but was forced to return to Earth because of strong winds. Chang'e reached the moon, where she coughed up part of the pill.^[3] Chang'e commanded the hare that lived on the moon to make another pill. Chang'e would then be able to return to Earth and her husband.^{[citation needed]}

The legend states that the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. Houyi built himself a palace in the sun, representing "Yang" (the male principle), in contrast to Chang'e's home on the moon which represents "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Houyi visits his wife. That is the reason why the moon is very full and beautiful on that night.^[3]

This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) collections; Shan Hai Jing, the Classic of the Mountains and Seas and Huainanzi, a philosophical classic.^[4]

Another version of the legend, similar to the one above, differs in saying that Chang'e swallowed the pill of immortality because Peng, one of Houyi's many apprentice archers, tried to force her to give the pill to him. Knowing that she could not fight off Peng, Chang'e had no choice but to swallow the pill herself.^{[citation needed]}

Other versions say that Houyi and Chang'e were still immortals living in heaven at the time that Houyi killed nine of the suns. The sun birds were the sons of the Jade Emperor, who punished Houyi and Chang'e by forcing them to live on Earth as mortals. Seeing that Chang'e felt extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to find the pill that would restore it. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person would only need half a pill to regain immortality. Houyi brought the pill home and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home. Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky because of the overdose.

Some versions of the legend do not refer to Houyi or Chang'e as having previously been immortals and initially present them as mortals instead.

There are also versions of the story in which Houyi was made king as a reward for killing nine of the suns and saving the people. However, King Houyi became a despot who either stole a pill of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West or learned that he could make such a pill by grinding up the body of a different adolescent boy every night for a hundred nights. Chang'e stole the pill and swallowed it herself, either to stop more boys being killed or to prevent her husband's tyrannical rule from lasting forever.

Our Journey

We set off from the hostel at approximately 7:15pm. Well, the mass lantern procession was supposed to start at 7:30pm at the open field near Outram Park MRT station. However, we had a hard time trying to find the open field because it is such a vague description! By the time we finally found a field (which we still do not know whether it is the open field which the organisers were talking about), it was about 8pm. We were not sure whether the event got cancelled because of the rain or that we were too late. Eventually after asking a few people, we ended up in Chinatown where we saw tonnes of people and I knew that we were on the right track!

 There was even a makeshift stage with skimpily beautifully-dressed chinese ladies playing the traditional chinese instruments!

Well, by then it was about 8:30pm and all of us were starving!!!! Thus, we decided to get some food before we decide what we are going to do next. 

We found a random restaurant and ordered about 9 dishes for 9 of us. Beers were really cheap there! It was only S$6 for a big bottle! That was probably the reason why this guy puked just beside our table. Sorry Phuong, Simon and Iain. All 3 of them got the puke either on their hand or feet. :(

For some reason, Simon seems very amused with chopsticks and I have no idea why Camilla had that expression on her face. It is funny, so here it is!

After dinner, we decided that we were not going to let the rain stop us! So what if it rains? So what if no one else was playing with lanterns! We had already bought the lantern, and we were not going to let anything stop us! 

Poor Iain. He had to hold all the girls' lanterns when we went to the toilet.

Special way of holding lanterns

All of us with our beloved lanterns! 

We walked from Chinatown to Clarke Quay. Was not that far. Maybe around 10-15 minutes walk? After that, we bought a couple of beers and just sat on the bridge to drink. Much cheaper than going to a bar! Imagine a drink costing about S$15 for a pint in a bar, compared to a 6-pack beer for S$20. Much better deal!

Many thanks to our photographer for the night! This post will not be possible without you! :)

Krabi

Just came back from a 4 days 3 nights trip to Krabi. I think we spent just the right amount of time there. Weather was not fantastic though :

1st day: rained from the time we touched down till late night

2nd day: rained the whole morning

3rd day: amazing weather the whole day! :)

4th day: flew off in the morning

Well, one thing good with going to Krabi during the low season is that everything is cheaper! We stayed in a 5-star resort and it costs us only S$40 per night for a double room! We also booked ourselves on 2 day-trips and it was about 25% cheaper than high season! One pity is that we are unable to do fishing or trips to the different islands because of the monsoon.

Our lovely room

1st day:

Arrived at about noon. Paid 150 baht each (approximately S$6) to get a shuttle bus from Krabi Airport to our resort in Ao Nang. Takes about 45 minutes. The bus sends us straight to the resort so it was really convenient. After we checked into our room, we spent some time looking through the maps and pamphlets, trying to plan the rest of our trip. Lunch was 2 curries, 1 keema naan, pineapple rice, and 2 beers. It was about 900 baht (approximately S$35) which I thought was really expensive for Thailand. But well, we were not really on budget this trip. You can get a plate of fried rice or noodles for about 80-90 baht (S$3-S$4) if you are on budget! Beer is cheap at about 80-90 baht as well! Which is what matters most to us!

After lunch, we were walking around booking tours and looking for tailors (iain wanted to tailor 2 work shirts). We settled for 2 shirts and 1 trousers for 2500 baht (approximately S$100) which is still cheap considering that he pays about S$80 per shirt to buy off the rack in Singapore! We also picked 2 trips that we are interested in:
 

1. 45 minutes ATV, 15 minutes go-karting and 20 minutes shooting (1600baht or S$64 per person)
2. hot spring and 1 hour elephant ride (700 baht or S$28 per person)

Found an Irish bar to watch Formula One! Vettel won! :) Hamilton was out of the race! Well, Iain was pretty upset because he supports Hamilton and Button, but I do not really like Hamilton that much. I thought that he was a bit arrogant. 6 pints of beer, fried rice and fried chicken with garlic and pepper costs us about 900 baht (S$35) which I thought was really cheap considering how much beer we had.

We decide to leave the bar to have an early night, barely 20m away from the Irish Bar, we chanced upon this small stall by the road side selling beer. Well, unable to resist the temptation of cheap beer (only 50 baht per bottle at this small stall), we sat down for a couple of beers. We met an Australian guy, a French lady and a Finnish guy at the stall. Apparently, this is their regular hangout! It is a very friendly atmosphere whereby people are just sitting on stools on the pavement and drinking and chatting with each other. Reminds me of the hostel when we were doing that! :) Finally, went home at about midnight. (By the way, the small stall was called "Mr Cocks Bar")

2nd day:
Arranged for the pick up to be at 2:30pm from our hotel. Thus, we went out for lunch, went for the 1st fitting at the tailor then went back to the room to laze around. Today is the day of the ATV, go-kart and shooting trip! First time I tried ATV. It was quite fun, but a pity that we were going quite slowly because the path was very narrow and you had to navigate carefully. We went for a short practice round, and then a short trip into the jungle. I was murdered by mosquitoes! To those who know me well, I seem to attract tonnes of mosquitoes and they usually give me some form of allergic reaction. Horrible! Due to the rain in the morning, the ground was very muddy and I ruined my top! :(

me trying my best

iain navigating through a mini jungle

Go- karting was disappointing to me though. It was not a proper track whereby you can race on the track. Basically, it is riding on a go-kart to visit some rubber plantation. It was disappointing because I imagined a proper track where Iain and I could race!

we stopped at some swamp area for a break before turning back

Shooting was quite shabby too! Each of us had an air gun and there were many bottle hung up about 5-10 metres away from us. We were just shooting at the bottles from behind the table.

It is actually quite fun

Dinner was the best part of the day! We went to a seafood restaurant by the seafront. Ordered mussels, prawns, seafood fried rice and chicken fried in chilli and sweet basil. Iain had 2 Jack Daniels that night and I had 2 bottles of beer. Considering that it was a nice setup and really good food, we thought that the 1200 (S$48) that we paid was a bargain!

Had an early night because we were really lethargic from our activities that day.

3rd day:

Planned a half day trip to the hot spring and elephant ride. Unfortunately, it was Ramadan and many of the elephant handlers got to go to the mosque in the morning. In addition, our guide was a bit confused, so we had to follow the rest of the group on their full day trip.

First, we went to Tiger Cave Temple. It was horrible! Well, there was nothing much to do or see, and we spent 2 hours there. The 2 hours was probably for those who decided to climb about 1300 steps up the the top of a cliff to visit the temple there, but we were too lazy and thus we just had icecream, walked around and played 'angry birds' in the 2 hours.

small statues under a tree

Next, we went to the Hot Spring. The ride there was about an hour from the Cave. The water were just lukewarm, but nevertheless, it was quite interesting and comfortable to just sit in the hot spring to relax and chill out. We had about an hour there, including a 200m walk into the jungle. 

The next attraction was horrible! It was called 'Emerald Pool'. Basically, we were dropped off by the dirt road, and we had to walk 800m into the jungle to this natural swimming pool. Wasnt huge, tonnes of people, and wasnt very clean either. Iain and I just sat by the pool and soak our feet in the water. The guide decides to give us 2 hours for that pool as well! Our tour consist of 8 people, and only 1 guy went into the pool. I am sure the rest of the people are bored as hell as well! Lunch was provided but it was only 3 small dishes for 4 people. We could not even order additional food because the kitchen ran out of food! Not satisfying. 

Finally, we went to the elephant ride. This is the coolest part of the day! It was not a smooth ride though. At one point, our handler got off the elephant to take pictures for us. He just need to make certain noise and the elephant will go on auto-pilot. Pretty cool! After the ride, we bought bananas for 50 baht (S$2) to feed the elephant. 

We got back to the resort at about 7:30pm. Wanted to have an early day so we can walk around the shops, but unfortunately not everything worked out as planned. Still a good day though. Went to another seafood restaurant to have dinner at approximately the same price and went for a few drinks at a random pub.

4th day:

Left early in the morning.

Well, we spent about S$1250 in total including air tickets, hotels, tailor, which I think is reasonable considering that we were not very budget conscious when we were on holiday. Overall, I think it is a good trip, a better weather will make the trip more enjoyable though! :)

Clarification

Dear all,

I realised that there are a few misconceptions for many guests who decide to stay in a hostel. Guests will stay in a backpacker hostel for many reasons:

1. Hotels in Singapore is too expensive (Singapore is the 10th most expensive city in the world)
2. They are lonely and just want to stay in a place where they will not be alone (a dormitory is a good idea in this case)
3. They will like to make like-minded people who share the same idea, or 'frequency' as we say in Singapore

Well, either options are fine, as long as you stay in my hostel. However, especially for people who stay in hostels because of option 1, I will need to clarify certain things, mostly revolving around how our hostel is a HOSTEL and not a hotel:

1. We do not have ensuite bathroom
There are so many people who come to the hostel and after that complained about how we do not have ensuite bathroom in the room. Well, for a start, when the guests booked it from the different platforms that we are on, it is clearly stated 'shared bathroom'. So, please do not write a review and complain about it when it is your own mistake that you did not look at the description properly when you book!

2. We do not have Television in the room
Some people think that there will be television in the room. Thus, I think there is a need to clarify once again that we are a hostel and we do not have television in the room. We do not even have a television in the hostel with local channels. We do have 1 that you can connect to the computer or DVD player. This is because I have called the different operators in Singapore and apparently the cable line does not run to my hostel's location.

3. You will have to make your own breakfast
Well, some people think that like a hotel, one of us will stand behind the counter to serve the guests whatever they want to order. Well, there is kind of a reason why the prices are so cheap. Because, we are a basic accommodation. You make your own breakfast of toasts, coffee and tea. One of the guests I checked in was quite funny. Maybe he is a bit ignorant, I brought him to the dormitory and he actually asked me what if he wants water? Does he ask me and I serve it to him? Sigh...hearing this kind of questions makes me think that certain people are just a little ignorant.

4. Some of our toilets and showers are combined
I know in most Western culture, toilets and showers are always separate. Thus, the floor in the toilet is always dry. However, in many Asian countries, it is common to have combined toilet and shower. Even a squatting toilet! Thus, do not be amazed to see that in the hostel! We are going to change our squatting toilet to a sitting one, but we are still having a few combined cubicles. A guest actually wrote in a review that 'The shower was most interesting. Actually there were two toilets, with a shower in it". I think that by saying that only makes the guest sounds ignorant in public.

5. You need to turn on the heater for the shower
I understand that everyone has a different common sense. Maybe guests come from different culture, and thus certain way of life is different. Just imagine, if you go for shower and there is not hot water, what will you do? You see a heater box in the shower. For most people (I hope), will check that the heater in the shower is not turned off, and there is a red light. If there is no red light, usually people will check that there is a red button outside the shower for the main switch of the heater. After running the hostel for almost 2 years, I realised that this is something that requires a step-by-step instruction. I have received quite a few reviews that says that we should write instructions on how to turn on the heater. It makes me wonder, where should the line stop? What do I need to write an instructions and what do I not need to? If I have too many instructions for the guests, will they feel that the hostel requires them to read too many things? Sigh..dilemma! :(

These are currently the top 5 clarifications that I think I should let any potential guests know about. Because I believe that both parties should be happy staying in the hostel: the guests and us. We will want you to have an amazing stay in Singapore as well, and accommodation plays a big part. Thus, take a few minutes to look through and if certain things are what you cannot accept (eg. you definitely need someone to serve you breakfast and water) then maybe this is not the place for you.

Thanks for reading!

New Blog

Dear all!

I have decided to change the blog of Drop Inn. It is definitely 'NOT' because I have lost the ID of the previous blog and thus am unable to post/edit anything.

For those who have not been to the previous blog or been to Drop Inn before, I shall give a brief introduction.

This hostel was set up in November 2009 by an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore. She did not really enjoy working as an auditor and decided that life is too short to work for something that she is not interested in. Initially, the idea was to open a cafe, but the cafe industry in Singapore is too competitive. Thus, opening a hostel, since she love traveling so much, seems like the perfect idea.

Firstly, let me introduce the founder:

Basically, this is me. Another reason why I started a hostel is because, I absolutely love drinking! And, the best part about starting the hostel is that my job involve drinking (which is also my hobby). Thus, perfect again.

Well, too many things have happened since November 2009, and thus I will not be able to mention everyone. I will just have a short caption with each of the picture that I will be putting up.

How Drop Inn looks like from outside

Communal Area

Well, I feel I had to put up these 2 publicity pictures before I post pictures of my interesting/weird guests!

2 british guests who seems very interested in my IKEA toy snake which is now missing. Came in Jan 2010.

My second month anniversary! Not sure what happened to the first! :)

'Lou Hei' during Chinese New Year in Feb 2010. Apparently, it is supposed to be for good luck in the coming year! 

An amazing group of friends whereby we do so many things together! drinks after work (although I have already been drinking during work), pool, Orchard Towers aka Four Floors of Whores, and Sentosa. Amazing!! :)

I love you guys! Thanks for making St Patrick's Day 2010 so memorable!

This period is around May 2010. Amazing times with everyone! This is the clubbing and drinking phase! So many good times! We are partying almost every weekend!

Another great group! This time, we did not club that much, but we go to Sentosa pretty often! Wavehouse remember? With our buy 1 get 1 free deal for anything with vodka. Halloween 2010!

First year anniversary in Nov 2010. Hostel then Sentosa Wavehouse! Such a great night!

Dave, we all miss you!!! Apr 2011. Things are not the same after you left! :(

I think the hostel has given me many good memories. :)