Vitra Singh's Blog, page 2

Hiking Up Little Adam’s Peak, Sri Lanka

During our visit to Sri Lanka last week, my mom, hubby, and I hiked up Little Adam’s Peak located in Ella, Sri Lanka. Ella is in “tea country” and thus has a higher elevation than the other major cities in the country. 

I chose Little Adam’s Peak over the “real” Adam’s Peak because we were not looking to do anything too intense – just active enough to get our heart rates up so we didn’t feel like total gluttons with all the fish and curries we had been eating throughout our journey.

We ended up having breakfast at 98 Acres Resort and Spa which has beautiful grounds and an amazing view of the peak from their restaurant.

A view of Little Adam’s Peak from 98 Acres Resort and Spa

 

This was a great way to kick off our walk, which was not at all intense, though there are a few places along the path that can be confusing in terms of which direction to follow. There is also a stairs option, which we did not take after reading reviews about the steepness. 

It took us about 30 minutes to make it to the top and it was totally worth it:

Panoramic shot of view from iPhone

 

Would definitely recommend you wear a hat/sunglasses if you are hiking the trail after sunrise – it can feel quite hot at times. Also, take a bottle of water, and even some snacks if you want to spend some time sitting up there admiring the view. 

Enjoying the view on top of Little Adam’s Peak, Sri Lanka

 

There were a handful of other travelers at the top, taking selfies and posing in yoga positions (rolling my eyes – I’m allowed to be a hater for a second…okay, done!)

The walk down was much quicker – about 15 minutes. There may be women along the way who ask if you want them to take a picture. We couldn’t figure out if they meant that they would take a picture of us, or if they would be in a picture with us. Either way, we kindly said no thanks! 

Tell us about your last experience hiking, and share any hiking pointers you may have!

Twitter and Instagram: @VitraSin

Sea Turtle Hatchery in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

Like a painting

These beauties are 1-2 week old sea turtles, from the Sea Turtle Hatchery & Rescue Center in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. Though the organization is small, their cause is noble. The owner buys sea turtles in order to save them (from being cooked and other bad stuff) and gives them a sanctuary.

The rescue center has six different types of sea turtles, in various conditions – from perfectly healthy to injured.

This guy got caught in a net and had one of his hands sliced off:

Injured sea turtle

And this one had a portion of his shell cut off by a boat propeller:

Victim to boat propellers

This stop toward Galle is highly recommended (or on the way to Colombo, depending in which direction you are going.) It provides an education, entertainment, and donations for a worthy cause. Though we left before 6pm, I believe they release turtles into the sea at that time.

In the palm of my hands

For more information, you can contact the Center directly here:

Hatchery Information

What’s been one of your most memorable animal experiences in your travels? Comment below!

Charming Hoi An Lights Up My Long Weekend

Vesak Day, also known as Buddha’s birthday, is a public holiday in Singapore. Since starting a full-time gig, mini vacations keep me excited about seeing different parts of Asia.

This weekend, I took an extra day to make it a 4-day weekend!!! We are in Hoi An, Vietnam and it is such a charming old town.

I would give a bit more history but hubby forgot our guide book at home :-/

I did read before coming that the city requires shopkeepers to hang and light lanterns outside their buildings. It creates a warm and colourful atmosphere.

Food is delicious and cheap; the city has several beaches; and locals are super friendly – even if you don’t buy something from a vendor, most reply with, “Have a nice day.” So there is something for everyone here!

Admittedly, we were a bit lazy on this trip. Normally, I feel the need to do all the top guidebook sights – Marble Mountains, Cham Islands, My Song, etc.

But this time we have chilled in the ancient town, walked around, eaten, hit the beach, and hung out at the pool – and I barely feel guilty!

Here are a few quick pics from my iPhone, although I took most with my DSLR and will have to upload once back in Singapore:

View from hotel room above

An Bang Beach

Found a local with very familiar pants!

Placing a light into the river for good luck!

Smile!

Where have you travelled recently!?!

Charming Hoi An Lights Up My Long Weekend

Vesak Day, also known as Buddha’s birthday, is a public holiday in Singapore. Since starting a full-time gig, mini vacations keep me excited about seeing different parts of Asia. 

This weekend, I took an extra day to make it a 4-day weekend!!! We are in Hoi An, Vietnam and it is such a charming old town. 

I would give a bit more history but hubby forgot our guide book at home :-/

I did read before coming that the city requires shopkeepers to hang and light lanterns outside their buildings. It creates a warm and colourful atmosphere. 

Food is delicious and cheap; the city has several beaches; and locals are super friendly – even if you don’t buy something from a vendor, most reply with, “Have a nice day.” So there is something for everyone here!

Admittedly, we were a bit lazy on this trip. Normally, I feel the need to do all the top guidebook sights – Marble Mountains, Cham Islands, My Song, etc. 

But this time we have chilled in the ancient town, walked around, eaten, hit the beach, and hung out at the pool – and I barely feel guilty!

Here are a few quick pics from my iPhone, although I took most with my DSLR and will have to upload once back in Singapore: 

   

View from hotel room above

An Bang Beach

  Found a local with very familiar pants!

  Placing a light into the river for good luck!

  Smile!

 

Delicious Tamarind Snapper from Vy’s Marketplace

Where have you travelled recently!?!

Prata Making in Singapore

I’m a fan of trying new things when traveling – (as long as it doesn’t include jumping off buildings or eating bizarre foods.)

So when my company arranged an afternoon out of the office for a Prata Making workshop, I was excited. For those who are unfamiliar, Wikipedia describes prata as a fried flour-based pancake that is cooked over a flat grill. It is usually served with a vegetable- or meat-based curry and is from Malaysia and Singapore. Prata is also commonly cooked upon request with cheese, onion, banana, red bean, chocolate, mushroom or egg.

It was listed at number 45 in the World’s 50 most delicious foods readers’ poll compiled by CNN Go in 2011.

We booked with Casaurina Curry Restaurant at Upper Tomson – a no-frills Indian-looking restaurant with a busy and open kitchen in the middle of the floor, separated by glass.

The classroom was basically two tables positioned in the corner of the restaurant. The surface – not super clean, and i’m sure probably not sanitized properly. But regardless, the whole point was to learn how to roll out the dough, which the instructor showed us a few times – never in words, just by doing.

Here we are, trying to become prata-masters:

Would I do it again? No.

But it was a great experience to have. Fun for kids if you are in town – they can get their hands dirty and eat at the same time.

*Just a note: The pratas we rolled out where not cooked. I believe they were thrown away.

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

I spend the weekend in Kota Kinabalu and am torn – there are beautiful aspects, but I found the city rather rundown and polluted. It seems that many people use “KK” as a base to get to other places in Borneo – Northern Sabah, Sipadan, etc.

We decided to be low key and low activity. We spent one day walking around the city and the next day we took a speedboat to two of the TAR islands – Sapi and Manukan.

Here are some images from our weekend:

Sunset in central Kota Kinabalu
Monitor Lizard coming out of hiding.
Cool-looking rock formations
Sunset skies from the Shangri-La
Wet market
Cool old-school fishing boats
Fresh coconuts – for 33 cents. Can’t beat that.
Side street
Colorful doors
Garbage…unfortunately everywhere

 

Where is your favorite place to go for a long weekend?

A Day Trip to the Blue Mountains in Sydney, Australia

The Blue Mountains is definitely worth a day trip if you are visiting Sydney. About 1.5 hours outside of Central Sydney, the Blue Mountains are densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. When droplets of oil from the trees combine with dust particles and water vapor, the result is a blue-looking horizon.

Taking a day-trip can be expensive if done through a tour company – about $175/USD per person, so it might be worth it to rent a car, instead. The tour I took also included a few other side stops, such as Featherdale Zoo (where visitors can feed kangaroos and pose with koala bears), the Three Sisters (see image below), and an Aboriginal-focused play.

There is a cable-car ride that goes from one side of the Blue Mountains to the other, supposedly an astonishing/scary experience as part of the car has a glass bottom. Unfortunately, weather did not cooperate and the view was hidden by thick clouds – though it did clear up once we got to the other side!

Here are some images of the experience:

What’s out there? Hard to tell.
The Three Sisters

 

A Weekend Getaway in Batam

One of my favorite things about Singapore is its’ proximity to so many interesting destinations. This weekend, Hubby and I decided to take a weekend getaway to Batam. Situated 12 miles off of Singapore’s south coast, the island is part of Indonesia.

It took us about an hour to get there via speedboat from Singapore’s Harbourfront. We left around 10:30am on Saturday morning, spent the night at a spa resort, and left Sunday at 2:30pm.

Admittedly, we were bad tourists. Our resort arranged pickup from the airport, as well as drop off on Sunday. We did not tour around the island, although there was a golf course directly across from the hotel. (The island has numerous golf courses, and people from Singapore will make the trip to play in Batam as it is much cheaper.)

Here are some pics from our 28 hour trip:

View of Singapore from Speedboat on the way to Batam

 

MASSIVE Cargo ship seen on the way to Batam

 

The epitome of a weekend getaway! POOL TIME

 

I thought being restricted to Saturday/Sunday trips was going to be a downer, but actually – it seems like there are many places around Singapore to take short trips. Looking forward to the next one!

Where is your favorite place to take a weekend getaway?

Sunrise Hike at Mount Batur

The alarm went off at 2am on the morning of August 17th. We sluggishly got dressed and made our way to the lobby – our tour guide was already waiting for us.

After a relaxing day in Bali, we were now going to embark on a hike up Mount Batur to view sunrise. Mount Batur is an active volcano located at the center of two concentric calderas north west of Mount Agung, Bali, Indonesia. The sunrise trek to the summit of Mt. Batur is 1717 meters (5633 feet). 

Our guide said that normally there are only about 100 people who do the trek on a daily basis, but we happened to be doing it on Indonesia’s Independence Day. This meant we had the company of more than a thousand people, all ascending single-file, with torches and hiking sticks.

Sunshine!

 

Having seen images of the gorgeous sunrise and surrounding landscape, I was excited to have some morning exercise and leisurely wait for the sun to appear. Boy, was I wrong!!

For those of you considering doing this trek, know that it is not a stroll in the park. The hike is steep in certain places, slippery, and after about 1/2 hour, feels never-ending. Funny enough, there were some local youngsters we met on top who said they do the hike on a daily basis – before they go to school! Talk about putting us to shame.

After about 60-90 minutes of hiking, we made it to the top. And it was freezing – like, morning-dew-in-my-hair-cold. We found an empty spot near the edge of the summit at 4am, and our guide informed us that the sun would rise around 5:30am. My hubby took this opportunity to take a morning snooze, snoring and everything. Me, too cold to do anything but shiver, sat there for an hour and a half – juuuuuussst hanging out by myself. !

Although, props to our tour guide – he somehow got us tasty sandwiches, fruit, and hot drinks.

Around 5:30, the sky started to lighten and we caught majestic glimpses of the surrounding area. The clouds were also passing right through us – it was kind of cool. Unfortunately, the weather was a little too cloudy so we didn’t get to see the sunrise. But, we did experience the following:

Bright colors as the sun comes up.

 

Hubs in the misty morning.

 

A shot of us once we could finally see the sun. Kind of looks like those old school 70s fake photo backgrounds!

 

Lovely landscape surrounding Mount Batur.

 

Wide view of Mount Batur – after we descended

 

Feeling accomplished! We climbed that Volcano.

Ah Yes, Now I Remember what 18 Degrees Feels Like

The last time I experience the frigid chill of winter was one year ago. Since then, we have enjoyed constant 90+ degree weather in Singapore.

We came back to visit our folks during the summer and the weather reinforced my staunch position that NYC is the best place on earth.

But now we are back in NYC… And it is freezing. Quickly, I am reminded of how single-digit weather feels… And my bones are still trying to warm up. Even inside a warm home, I am layered up and wearing a scarf. Clearly I need to “woman up!”