Tallinn, Estonia

Woke up early to go to Tallin, across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki by hydrofoil.
the Old town is beautifully preserved, mostly medieval. A lot of the old city walls and fortifications remain. Partly because when it was fashionable in the rest of Europe to tear down city walls, Tallinn was to poor to do it.

Climed up the bell towers of the Town Hall (Raekoja) and St Olaf Church. Really tiring for unfit ol' me. But great views over the Old City. This town has quite a few beautiful towers and domes.

Helsinki - Suomenlinna

Took a short ferry ride to the Suomenlinna Fortress on an island off mainland Helsinki. It wasn't that impressive although it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Just needs to be an important heritage rather than just visually impressive I suppose. Built by the Swedes, completed by the Russians and now in Finnish hands.

Also has a few pretty Finnish houses on the island.

Helsinki

Got into Helsinki this morning. First view of the land of Nokia and saunas was total white out. Fog was so thick I couldn't see the run way. Wonder how the pilot actually landed. Was a pretty good landing too. the fog cleared up pretty quickly.

Took the airport bus into town after leaving some of my luggage in a locker at the airport. Finland is still pretty relaxed about people leaving luggage without needing Xray and inspection unlike many airports in this terrorism threatened world.

Went on a audio-guided bus tour of the city. Took all of one and a half hours. Helsinki doesn't have too many tall buildings at all. A mix of Eastern and Western Europe. A few Orthodox churches scattered about town like the Uspensky Cathedral overlooking Market Square. The white-with-green-top Helsinki (Evangelical Lutheran) is the other imposing church in the city. Not imposing but rather unique is the Temppeliaukio Church created by carving INTO rock.

Not just all churches. Going bird-watching tomorrow.

Kuala Lumpur

Just a very brief visit to KL. Mainly to collect my laptop and run a few errands.

Stayed over at Kuoh Ren & Wei Ling's (my cousin and his wife) place. Also met up with old school friend Marvin who kindly picked me up and sent me to the bus station. Was raining rather heavily just before I got on the bus, hence the dark sky in the photo of the old railway offices in KL.

Managed to eat some Indian banana leaf rice too. That's about it really.

Singapore

Staying in Uncle Norman and Aunty Ming's place as usual. Last night stayed over at Milton, Cheh Peng and little Ben's place. Their apartment is surrounded by green areas. Saw quite a few birds this morning.

Today also met up with secondary school friend, Soo Teong. I had not seen in about 12 years! Sounds like he's pretty much settled here. Good chat with him.

Meeting Matthew, Rebecca and Christopher tomorrow for dinner.

Probably going to KL on Tuesday by bus.

Back from KL now.
Met up with Kim and meeting up with Yu Ni and Sharon tomorrow.

Going to Helsinki next.

Brisbane & Gold Coast

Arrived Brisbane, took the Airport train to the Gold Coast.
Jack picked me up at Nerang Station, joined by his fiancee Cindy, had dinner at Surfer's Paradise. Lots of Middle Eastern tourists.
Met up with Vinnie and had Yum Cha lunch. Dinner with Yen Yung, Mei Khing and little Xuan Xuan at their house in the suburbs.
Met a few potential bosses for jobs. They were all very nice and showed me around.
Walked around South Bank before catching the plane back to Adelaide. Quick trip. Not much of the tourist stuff. After all the main purpose was job hunting.

Melbourne

In Melbourne for job interviews and meeting up with friends. Stayed with Ee Lyn and Ching Sung, also met up with Matt and Cherry, Olivia and Eugene, Sidney, Chris and Sally, Cuong and Ian.

Also stayed with Cameron and Rachel and had a very interesting discussion about Cameron's latest project called Medicine Uncharted. He wants everyone to get involoved! It is very exciting.

Met up with Noel and Corrine, Chia Yao and Sook Fan, Ben, Li Szu and little Elizabeth, Pooi May, Marjoree and Shueh Wei, May, Dougs, Alice and Kevin, Shih-Jynn, Ming Lee and Tim. Lots of eating: Yum Cha at Lucky Chan and Jackie's Kitchen, crepes at Aix, chocolate at Max Brenner, coffee at Brunetti's and lots more.

Also went to see the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Did some painting too with Olivia and Eugene.

My brother's travels - Cape Town

Hello my favourite family,

Cape Town has been good. Weather here changes very fast - nice and sunny now but last night was really cold. The days can be over 20 degrees but the nights have dipped to 3-5 degrees. Got myself a space heater, which only worked a few days ago because the house circuit was blown. Or something. In South Africa, there is a saying, "just now". It basically means "later", but does not indicate a specific time. So when we told our landlord to fix it, he said he'll do it "just now". Sometimes just now means 5 minutes later, or in our case, about 2 weeks later.

University of Cape Town is on the foothills of Devil's Peak, which is basically a 15 minute walk from the main road, as my classes are on the upper campus. It is quite high up, we can see views comparable to the height of being on top of Bukit Gasing. Most richer people (Whites & Chinese) drive their own cars, and fortify their houses with lots of barbed wire (not the little spikes used on Ma's house but more like those huge ones used in the Vietnam war). Many houses also electrify their fences, and I've even seen a house that keeps snakes (?!) on their compound as a deterrent against break-ins.

There are lots of wildlife, including abundant birdlife around the area. Classes just started this week. I'm taking some post-grad honours courses as well as upper-level undergraduate workshops. Lectures are a little less organized but there are tons of readings. I saw a really good documentary called "The Black Road" about the conflict in Acheh which won some Mumbai Film Fest Award not long ago. It's actually quite [thought] provoking (and graphic) about this American journalist who lived with the rebels and saw them being tortured and killed by the Indonesian military just before the tsunami hit. The director of the film is guest lecturing my class...in about 10 minutes.

Got to run now. Please send my love to everyone!

Love, T