Freshwater Pond Fishing in Shenzhen on 25 Oct 09

One Sunday in October 09, while in Shenzhen for work on a trip that spanned the weekend, I went fishing with 1 of my colleagues and our local partners there. This is the second time that we have fished together at the same spot which is next to a popular frog-themed resort park (they have statues of frogs everywhere) about an hour's drive from our regular hotelon Hua Qiang Bei Lu. I am afraid I can't give directions there (one should use the highway that much I know) but here's a picture which I hope will prove useful if you wish to go to the Waterlands Resort (Hai Shang Tian Yuan) in Shenzhen. I haven't been in the resort and haven't a clue what goes on in there (I spend all the time at the fishing pond) but it's quite popular amongst tourists and locals.

This is how the fishing freshwater pond looks like (as of October 09 at least). As you can see, it is relatively primitive and undeveloped and one can fish from any spot along the banks or from the wooden structure house overlooking the pond. Although it is far more challenging to land a fish from the wooden house which stands on stilts, you are likely to catch more fish fishing from that house than from the edge of the pond based on my observations. The wooden house used to house the fishing operator (they were there in April 09 when I went there for the first time) but they have since moved out and the house is deserted. One is therefore advised to bring one's own rods, reels, hooks and bait. The fish here are fed on bread mix and take small hooks.

In April 09, we didn't require any license whatsoever to fish but in Oct 09, we were required to get fishing permits before we could fish. The picture below is of 1 of my local partner's daughter with the permit around her neck. The fishing permits are easily obtained (well, at least our local partners got them for us without any problems) from a white house with a blue roof located near the ponds (not the wooden house as per the picture below) and I think there is a very nominal cost for each permit. The fish that she is holding appears to be a baby tilapia and one should be warned that there are many of these critters in the pond which eat one's bait meant for bigger fishes. Therefore, one should check one's bait frequently and rebaiting more than 4 times every half hour is to be expected.

This is a picture of me and the first fish I caught, a small red-bellied pacu. I understand from my local partners that these fishes were recently introduced to the pond (they certainly weren't there in April 09) and one should be careful of their very sharp teeth. In fact, I lost almost 5 small hooks to pacus. One is therefore advised to use wired leader. I had been fishing from 10am to 12.30pm without a bite from the wooden house (the picture below shows the platform of the wooden house overlooking the pond) when my colleague at the other end of the platform yelled he had a bite. I ran over to him with my line trailing in the water when I felt a jerk and pull. I struck and after some furious splashing (pacus are great fighters especially on light line), I landed my first red-bellied pacu. Oh, I should mention that we were all pole-fishing in Shenzhen ie fishing without a reel - the line is tied to the end of an extendable pole, pretty much like prawn fishing. There were only a couple of other people at the pond using spinning reels but most other folks in China do pole fishing. Luring apparently remains unpopular in Shenzhen. Pole fishing can be far more challenging than fishing with a reel (the marvels of technology) and yes, it takes a certain technique to strike and land a fish with just a pole and a line that one cannot retrieve (as with a reel) to bring a fish in. A picture of my rented pole behind me.

This fishing trip I caught about 4 red-bellied carps and 3 grass carps. 1 of the grass carps was the largest fish caught amongst all the fishes we caught. The picture below is of that large carp next to a men's size 11 sandal to give you an idea of its size. The memory of catching this carp is one of the best memories I have. :) Just a word of caution though, the last fishing trip I saw a man's pole break into half due to the sheer weight of the carp on the other end - these carps can grow to quite a nice size. That is one of the pitfalls of using a rented pole to fish (as opposed to fishing with expensive rods and reels).

Our party fished from 10am to about 6pm when the sun went down. I caught 7 fishes in all out of the 21. The fishes were kept alive in a net which we left in the pond under careful supervision. Better to be safe than sorry. The picture below is of our fishing party and our haul (you can see my large reddish grass carp at the top hehe).

Our local partners took us to a seafood restaurant about 5 mins away from the fishing ponds which is built on stilts over water. The restaurant owner was more than happy to cook the fishes we caught (probably because our local partners ordered moutai which is about 50% alcohol and the most expensive type of alcohol in China). We decided to have the largest carp that I caught (it's at the top of the pic) and two pacus (bottom left of the pic). The pacus make terrible table food with all its bones and little meat. The carp while fleshy had a muddy taste. Of course, as it was hairy crab season, we had hairy crabs too and I had two of 'em because my colleague let me have his. Hairy crabs are amongst the more expensive food, even in China. I would have taken more pics of the food (and the hairy crabs opened with their eggy insides) but for formal dinners, if you know what I mean, it is almost impossible to take pictures of food without atttracting stares or even worse, glares from the bosses :)

Legion (2010) Movie

I watched the movie Legion today which was a bad mistake. It was either that or the Tooth Fairy movie and since both movies had winged entities, I figured the one with more action would give me more bang for the buck. Well, it sure did. In fact, I am banging myself up for my sheer stupidity because I paid good money to scare myself again. I told you before, I don't like horror movies and now I'll probably get nightmares from the scenes in Legion.

The Slog Reviews: 5/10 because of the weak story plot which can be summarised easily as per the link above. Paul Bettany is hot though here - he looks much slimmer and fitter than he did in the Da Vinci Code movie (but then again he was sneaking around in a loose cossack). I thought it was tragic that everyone in the diner was killed save for Jeep and Charlie (and her baby of course). And the three most terrifying characters were, the ice-cream man when his limbs became elongated and he scuttled about like a spider, Gladys, when she climbed up the ceiling and saving the best for the last, the little boy who pretended to be trapped in the car and killed Kyle. That was quite terrifying, when Kyle realised the little boy was in fact one of the possessed (the little boy in his arms started humming a tune before biting his neck) and when the little boy left bloody handprints on the ceiling before attacking Charlie. Ugh. The only good stuff I remember about from the movie is near the end when Michael tells Gabriel about showing mercy.

Ho Chi Minh City on 16 Jan 2010

Pho (pronounced as "Fur") is one of the most well-known and popular Vietnamese dishes. I have eaten Pho at five star hotels in Vietnam, from street-side hawkers for 20,000 VND (less than SGD 2), at fast-food chain outlets in Ho Chi Minh and even tried home-cooked Pho. I love Pho, a simple yet tasty and filling dish consisting of white rice noodles (kway teoh) and beef/chicken. What marks a good bowl of Pho is the quality of its soup and meat.

On my second visit to Ho Chi Minh (the last visit was in Oct 06) on 16 Jan 2010, the very first meal I had there was Pho Bong (beef noodles) from a coffeeshop. As you can see from the picture below, a bowl of pho is always served with sides like beansprouts (the white vegetable on the left of the pic) which one can add as much of as one wants to the soup which gives the meal more bite (bean sprouts are crunchy). One can also add a dash of lime and chili to give the soup more taste.

I had a room at The Park Hyatt Saigon facing the Opera House. The room was far nicer than the one at Kota Kinabalu, complete with a LCD TV, reclining couch by the window, a wash basin area with a large mirror, a bath-tub and a rain shower. The location at District 1 is superb ( close to shopping centers and to LV, Gucci etc) and the hotel is new with a very nice swimming pool (small cascading waterfall). The Slog Reviews: 9/10. If I had to foot the bill, I would be USD 280 x (no. of nights) poorer. More of an indulgence than necessity to stay at this hotel. Sheraton which is within walking distance to The Park Hyatt appears to be more popular with travellers because of its lower rates.

A picture of myself at the Park Hyatt's reception area. Mirrors are about the only way to get a picture of myself when I am not travelling for leisure.

1 of us had a brilliant idea and connections of some sort so guess where I had lunch...the casino at Sheraton (Park Hyatt does not have a casino within its premises). And, the complimentary steak which I had was mighty good too - thick and juicy. However, we had to have our meals on a foldup make-shift table next to the jackpot machines as there was only one dining area with just one table. I saw some other punters having pizza and pho but I would think that the steak is the best value. The currency used at the casino is USD.

Below is a picture of the entrance of the city's famous Ben Thanh market. I'd been inside before in 2006 and had no wish to revisit the place again (although it is immensely popular with tourists, esp those who like bargaining). There is an extremely cheap (30,000 VND only) public bus 152 right outside the airport departure gates which takes one from the airport to the south side of this market. From there, one can hail a metered cap to get anywhere in the city. Contrast this to my experience of paying USD 8 for a taxi to Park Hyatt from the hotel (I got a cab from the airport taxi counters outside the departure lounge).

Vietnam has lots of rice paddy fields so it's no surprise that many stalls sell rice. The picture below is my favourite picture of the trip which I took in a market (not Ben Thanh). I am not sure how one can tell the different grades of rice apart really.

I also took the picture below in the same market. A friend of mine posed a very good question - how would ladies be able to try on the undergarments before buying? To that, I have no answer at all. To us, it would look like the female seller is wearing her pyjamas in the day but that is the dressing of the common Vietnamese people during the day. My mother tells me that this was how Singaporeans dressed in the 60s to 70s.

It is common to see scenes like the one below on the streets of Vietnam - women wearing the traditional cone-shaped hats and selling fruits (mangos, bananas etc) on the pavements of the dusty streets. I was told that most Vietnamese men are usually unemployed, drink, smoke and beat their wives while the women go out to work. I have no idea how true that is but indeed there were many women selling all sorts of stuff from fruits to bags to shoes under the hot sun along the road sides. We don't have scenes like that in clean green Singapore. When I go to the less developed countries, I am reminded of how good I have it compared to so many others out there who find each day a challenge to put food on the table for their children.

Most of the streets in Ho Chi Minh look like the one below. There are telephone/electricity wires strung above the ground and the most common form of transport is a scooter/bike/moped. The traffic in Ho Chi Minh is crazy - I usually rent a car/motorbike when holidaying overseas but the safest and easiest way for a tourist to get around Ho Chi Minh is by taxi. Trust me on this - just get a taxi for the first day and observe the sheer madness of the bikes cutting right and left and the cars not following the faded white lane lines on the road. Crossing the road as a pedestrian is a challenge too but a smaller challenger than riding around - all one has to do is to inch forward cautiously when there isn't so much traffic (there will always be traffic) and the bikes will avoid you as best as they can. I wouldn't recommend jaywalking though, especially in Ho Chi Minh - one of the cases I had before was a personal injury case where a motorbike slammed into a woman's legs and broke the bones. Although this happened in Singapore with its first/world class health care, the damage to her legs was ugly and lasting.

I'll end this entry with a picture of a home-cooked meal I had at Ho Chi Minh. The rice sesame cracker (pic on the top left) is eaten with the small clams (pic on the top right) as an appetiser. The main course was pho of course (no one can ever get enough of pho :D) and we had home-made coconut jellies for dessert which tasted pretty much like what you can get in Singapore. It isn't often that one can have a home-cooked meal in a foreign land and despite one of my friends putting it as "From Hyatt to Hovel", I would say that it was a privilege for me part-take and experience in this meal.

Grey Hound Racing and Seafood in Vietnam (Vung Tau) on 17 Jan 2010

With some time to spare in the late afternoon, we caught a ferry to Vung Tau. Apparently, it is wise to buy the tickets from Vina Express in advance (the last ferry from Ho Chi Minh to Vung Tau is at 4.30pm) because we saw some unfortunate souls who were unable to buy their tickets. Luckily, we had asked the concierge at our hotel, Park Hyatt, to call Vina Express to reserve the tickets for us. Each ticket has a seat number (the seats on the boat are numbered too) so one is assured of a seat on board and a complimentary bottle of water and wet napkin. The journey from Ho Chi Minh to Vung Tau by ferry is one and a half hours. There is a television on board but unless you understand Vietnamese, there is pretty nothing much else to do or even see on board because the windows are dirty. The only way to get a view would be to stand outside the cabin of the very long ferry but the wind is awfully strong and the view, nothing to shout about. Do note though that each ferry departs on the dot (they don't wait for all late-comers) and the seats are narrow and set very close to each other. The price of a one way ticket is 160,000VND for an adult.

Vung Tau is popular amongst the locals for its beaches. This is a picture I took of one of Vung Tau's beaches from the 9th floor of a Dic Star Hotel. The color of the sea is a dull light grey and the beaches are not made powdery white but a dull shade. Nothing like the beaches of the Tungku Abdul Rahman Marine Park's islands. There weren't any tourists sunbathing at any of the deckchairs put out near the beaches but there were many locals playing ball games on the beaches or dipping in the sea. I didn't see any lifeguards on duty so I guess it is a case of swim-at-your-own-peril. The sea water is rather dirty because right after I got out, my legs started itching. I never had that happen before.

We had dinner at this seafood restaurant on Vung Tau which is immensely popular with indoor and outdooor seaside dining (although you can see only the inky darkness of the sea in the night). The restaurant is rather large indeed and despite most tables being filled, we had no problems at all getting a table and being served quickly.


There were various types of live seafood kept in ponds in the restaurant such as lobster, fish and crabs. I would have liked to order more (and I mean, much more) food that night but as I was a guest, I had no say in what was ordered at all. Here are some of the items that I got to try: boiled prawns (the waitress brought the live prawns to our table for us to inspect first), white clams (these were really good), crab done in chilli (bottom right pic) and pieces of fish in a mixture of salty gravy in a claypot. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. Everything was so fresh, so cheap and cooked just right. The white clams and fish dishes especially are unique dishes (I have never had these dishes cooked this way in Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand) which I think are worth a try if you are in Vietnam.

We also had this vegetable dish which I'd never eaten before - pumpkin leaves. I didn't really like the soggy wet taste of the bud but the stems were okay. Wouldn't recommend this dish if one isn't a vegetable-lover.

After dinner, we took a cab to the greyhound racing track, which is the only race course for greyhounds in Vietnam. The track is located at 15 Le Loi Street and the entrance fee for any one over 10 years of age is 25,000 VND for grandstand tickets and 55,000 VND for VIP tickets. From what I understand, there are 12 races every Saturday night starting from 7.15pm until 10.30pm.

Right after we walked through the gate (per the above picture), we saw a dog handler with one of the hounds. He let us take photos of the hound and even with the hound (one needs to hold tight to the collar though) free of charge (he refused to take any tips). The hound as you can see, has a steel muzzle over its mouth so I think children should be fairly safe around the hound.

Here is a picture of the grandstand (which was filled but not packed) and the dog handlers bringing the hounds out onto the track before the race.

Below is a picture of the same scene (dog handlers taking the hounds out before a race) from a different angle. Under blue sign are the numbered pens from which each hound will start the race from. There are different colors for each number on the door of each pen and the hounds will be dressed in the respective colors and numbers from the door they will burst out from.

The dog handlers must be pretty used to having their photos taken together with the hounds because I, like everyone else, was jostling to get a good shot of them with the hounds. In fact, I would advise that one should take a chance to observe each dog before the race when it is brought out, especially if one is intent on betting. One can observe which dog looks tired, drags its legs, acts disinterested or is particularly alert (trotting along, looking very keenly ahead and not distracted by the crowd) before one goes to the counter and places one's bet.

I tried to get a really good picture of the dogs bursting out of their pens at the start of the race but this was the best I could do with my point-and-shoot canon powershot. The race starts with a fake noisy super-fast hare-like contraception making one/half round around the inner-track railings and as it passes the pens, the pen doors open and the hounds rush out chasing after the contraception.

My view is that dogs, much less hounds, aren't that dumb to be fooled again and again by a "fake metal with a red bit of cloth contraception" and the hounds have probaby wisened up a long time ago to the fact that what they are chasing isn't the least bit alive. They probably are running their hearts out to emerge the winner - dogs can get competitive too, no? And below, is one of 'em hounds bounding past the crowd (note the rails on the inner track)...I so need a better camera :)

Gangnaroo Korean Restaurant at Circular Road

I had dinner today at Gangnaroo Korean Restaurant which is located at 35 Circular Road. As we went there late (about 8pm) on a Mon night, the restaurant was mostly empty but if one wants to make reservations to be safe, the tel no is (+65)6538 2837.

The restaurant is run by a Korean couple who are able to speak some English. The menu is in English with pictures so there shouldn't be any problem ordering. The price of the dishes range from SGD 13 to 45 and juices are priced at SGD 3. This restaurant isn't a fine dining establishment and most of the dishes are noodles, soups and stone-pot rice. Unlike most Korean restaurants, there is no BBQ or BBQ items here and the emphasis seems to be on their soups. Currently, there are no promotions with any credit cards so one should be prepared to pay the full price without any discount.

I wanted to have the ginseng herbal chicken soup priced at SGD 22 but it was sold out. So I ordered the Kimchi vegetable soup with rice instead (SGD 13). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The meal came with 6 different complimentary korean appetisers ranging from bean sprouts to pickled kimchi to beancurd.The kimchi veg soup I had was served piping hot and was spicy in itself. Perfect for a rainy day or if one is feeling cold. I am not a korean food fan so I have no basis for comparison but I'll say that there were plenty of ingredients in the soup and the soup gave me a nice warm burning sensation in my tummy after the meal. I need to go back to this place for the ginseng herbal chicken soup!

Restoran / restaurant Kim Rock at Bukit Indah, JB

We had dinner today at Restaurant Kim Rock which is located near Jusco Aeon Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru. The last time I ate here was about half a year ago (which should tell you something). The reason for choosing this restaurant is because it has air-conditioning and two TVs in the air-conditioned area with Singapore channels. My mother unfortunately, is quite addicted to the Taiwanese drama serial "Love" which has been going on a darn long time every weekend at 7pm and is not willing to miss a single episode of the series. Therefore, when we drive in to JB for dinner, this is the only place which will meet all her needs and my sister's craving for some decent cheap seafood.

Dinner (as was lunch at tea garden which I will write about another time) consisted of 6 dishes: Sambal kangkong (you can see a bit of it at the bottom right pic), claypot seafood (bottom right) at RM30, 1 crab cooked in black pepper (top right) at RM 25, 1 crab cooked in herbs (bottom left) at RM 25, shrimp omelette at RM 10 and the restaurant's speciality, the marinated pork ribs (top left) at RM 22. The cost of all of the dishes, 2 plates of rice and 5 cans of soft drinks was RM 135.

The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The standard of cooking definitely has fallen since half a year back. The kangkong was not hot (rather bland in fact) despite our request to make it spicy, the crabs while fresh (we handpicked them from the tank) were not succulent or sweet and the pork ribs were too hard and chewy for our liking. The sauce it was marinated in was neither too sweet or sour, resulting in most of the dish left untouched. The only dishes really worth their price were the shrimp omelette and the claypot seafood which had plenty of mushrooms (that isn't a seafood hmmm), sea cucumber, fish maw and shrimps. The gravy was thick and marginally tasty. As for the service, the food was served quickly, and the staff were very friendly and polite.

Of course, no trip to JB is complete without durians. We polished off two durians in Malaysia and bought back another 3 for RM12/kg. Total cost of the five D24 durians: RM90. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Good creamy durians but nothing, and I mean, nothing compares to the durians which I had at Sakil last year. I think I shall write about that durian road trip next.

Chinatown Chinese New Year LightUp Opening Ceremony 2010 and Chinatown Chinese New Year Decorations for 2009 and 2010

I was at the official light-up and opening ceremony for our Chinatown Chinese New Year 2010 Celebrations today. These adorable tiger robots (tiger because it is the year of the tiger for 2010) which are controlled via remote control (like for toy planes and cars) are not only able to move about, but are also able to sing, call out Chinese New Year greetings, introduce themselves and unfurl/keep the red banner with auspicious greetings. I think I must have spent a good 10mins watching the 4 robots which were located near the start of Eu Tong Sen Street interacting with the crowd.

To keep the crowd (which had started packing in as early as 5pm) entertained, there was also a fire-juggler and an inflated God of Fortune mascot. Here is a picture I took of the mascot walking by. The emcees had encouraged the crowd to reach out and stroke its tummy for good luck and it certainly wasn't easy for the mascot to make its way along.

The ceremony started about 7.30pm when the guest of honor arrived. I was seated behind the main stage (which is where the crowd is allowed to gather) as you can see from the photo below. The photo below is of the ministers (and probably some other VIPs) on the stage just before the launch of the light-up ceremony in Chinatown. To mark the moment when all the decorations for CNY would light up, pink balloons were released by the ministers. You can see the balloons drifting up in the sky near the roof the building in the picture. As for the flags and people in the foreground, these belong to the lion dance teams from various countries like Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Apparently there was a lion dance competition the day before and the winners were announced today. Third place went to a team from Malaysia, second place to a team from China and first place to a team from Singapore. Go Singapore!

The fireworks at Chinatown went off about 9.20pm. According to the news, there will be fireworks for the next three Saturdays at the Singapore River near Clarke Quay. Most people left after the fireworks. Here is a picture of the start of the Chinese New Year lightup at Chinatown for 2010. The two creatures at the top are tigers of course!


I managed to take some photos of this year (2010)'s Chinatown Chinese New Year decorations from my car. The decorations are all along Eu Tong Sen Street. The decorations starts here.


As you can see from the picture below, theme this year is Spring, hence the many fake Cherry Blossom plants lining the road.


I thought I'll also show some pictures from last year (2009)'s Chinatown Chinese New Year decorations (which were oranges instead of cherry blossoms) and light up too for comparison sake. Instead of the two tigers for 2010 (above pic), we had this large Chinese character in red instead (Chun2) which means Spring in chinese. The animal for 2009 is an ox, hence the cow statues under the word (Chun2). If you are wondering about the two rats next to the cow, the rat is the animal for the outgoing year 2008. Between the two decorations, I think last year's is nicer :)

This is a picture we took of the giant inflatable God of Fortune erected along Eu Tong Sen Street last year. From the opening ceremony today, it looks like it has been blown up once more and is standing proudly along the same street and in the same spot as last year! However, I couldn't get a picture from where I did last year (to get this picture) as certain parts of Chinatown (in particular, access to bridges) were blocked off tonight because of the VIPs coming for the opening ceremony.

The picture below was taken by my friend from KL whom I had brought to soak in the atmosphere at Chinatown. For visitors, I'll say that coming to Singapore during the Chinese New Year period is certainly one of the best times of the year to visit Singapore because of the decorations and various celebrations going on, especially in Chinatown, and on the eve of Chinese New Year at Chinatown.

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) movie

The trailers for this movie made me go "must-watch" and I managed to catch this movie after a bit of persuasion with a friend who would rather have caught Legion instead. I thought he would have insisted on Legion (as he got the tickets) and was pleasantly surprised that he had got tickets for the movie I wanted to watch instead.

The Slog Reviews: 8/10. There aren't any special effects to make this show a "must-watch" on the big screen and the story is straight forward enough - vigilante movies usually are. A pretty good synopsis of the movie can be found here. This story was a bit more interesting than the usual "kill those who hurt me" movies because the watcher is made to wonder how far Clyde Shelton would go and how he manages to engineer all the assasinations from where he is. Of course, the answers are revealed in the movie towards the end. I loved the bit where he yelled at the judge for granting him bail. That's part of one of the themes explored again and again in the movie about how easy it is to use the law to one's own means - the law becomes the justification for the decision rather than the reason for the decision. Which is pretty much reflective of how humans are like - we always think we have the reasons for our decisions but really, we often arrive at decision and later look for reasons to explain it. The book Blink which I have finished but am still procrastinating from writing about here explores this far more deeply. Ah yes, and the part about "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove" too also struck a cord in me. Blame it on evidence law in the final year of law school and the burden of proof to be proved in a criminal (beyond reasonable doubt) and civil (on the balance of probabilities) case.

Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson

I love this author already. After reading his book "Who moved my Cheese?", I saw his latest book Peaks and Valleys at MPH and decided that I would borrow it from our library which I must say, does a fabulous job stocking up on new books. The reservation system rocks big-time too because one is assured of getting one's desired book ultimately.

The Slog Reviews: Peaks and Valleys. 10/10. I love Spencer Johnson's books because they are so easily read (not thick with small print), engaging (told in a story form) and he always condenses the points he is making on a page so one doesn't miss the message he is trying to get across. Best of all, I love his attitude of encouraging readers to pass the positivity and messages along which all in all, make a better world for everyone to live in (and prob increase his book sales hehe). For peaks and valleys, I read the book twice because it was THAT good and I recommend you all to just grab a copy and read - it won't take more than 1 hour of your life. Some might say he states the obvious but but but...he does it in manner that makes it stick.

Anyway, here are some points worth sharing:

1) It is natural for everyone to have peaks and valleys at work and in life. Peaks and valleys refer to one's personal peaks and valleys - not just the good and bad times that happens to one but also how one feels inside and respond to outside events. You become more peaceful when you realise you aren't your Peaks and not your Valleys. A personal peak can be a triumph over fear.

2) These good or bad moments may last for mins, or for months, or longer. How one feels depends largely on how one views one's situation. The key is to seperate what happens to you from how good and valuable you are as a person.

3) The key is also to understand that personal peaks and valleys are connected and how they are connected. How? The errors you make in today's good times create tomorrow's bad times. And the wise things you do in today's bad times create tomorrow's good times. During bad times, return to basics and concentrate on what matters most. And in good times, do not waste too many resources, get carried away from the basics and ignore what matters most because that will lead to a bad time. So, we actually create our own good and bad times far more than we realise.

4) No one can stay in one place forever. Even if you remain physically in one spot, you are always moving in and out of the places in your heart. The secret is to truly appreciate and enjoy each time for waht it is while you are living it. How you experience a valley has a lot to do with how long you'll remain in it. Peaks are moments when you appreciate what you have and Valleys are moments when you long for what is missing. If you want to have fewer Valleys, avoid comparisons.

5) To change a Valley into a Peak, you need to change one of two things: what is happening, or how you feel about what is happening. The path out of the valley appears when you choose to see things differently ie in a positive way (so you don't appear downtrodden and whiny) You need to find and use the good that is hidden in bad times.

6) Between Peaks there are always Valleys. How you manage your Valley determines how soon you reach your next Peak. If you do not learn in a Valley, you can become bitter. If you truly learn something valuable, you can become better.

7) Like a healthy heartbeat, your personal Peaks and Valleys are an essential part of a normal, healthy life. So are the Plateaus, if they are times of healthy rest when you take stock of what is happening and pause to think about what to do next. While it is unhealthy to try to escape by blocking out reality, it can often be very healthy to relax and rest and trust that things will get better. Because, after a good night's sleep or a few days' break they often do.

8) The source of most pp's fear is ego. Your ego can make you arrogant on the Peak and make you see things as better than they really are. And when you are in a valley, our ego makes you fearful, keeps you from seeing what is real, and makes you see things as worse than they really are. It makes you think a Peak will last forever and a Valley will never end. The most common reason you stay in a Valley too long is fear masquerading as comfort. The most common reason you leave a Peak too soon is arrogance masquerading as confidence. Ask yourself always then 2 qns, 1) what is the truth of the situation? Make reality your friend. 2)How can we use the good that's hidden in this bad time?

9) The best way to get through a valley is by creating and following your own sensible vision. A vision of a future Peak you want to be on that makes good sense to you. Something as big as you can imagine that is also realistic and attainable if you want it enough. And sensible means you can make what you magine more real when you use all your five senses to create an image in such specific detail that you begin to realise you can make it happen. Enjoy doing what takes you there.

10) Wishing leads to no action. When you truly follow a sensible action, you want to do the things that make it happen. Fear blocks you but the truth helps you succeed. Peaks and Valleys is more than a way of looking at things, it's a way of doing things too. And the more you do, the more youl earn and grow, and the more calm and successful you become.

11) The purpose fo the Peak is to celebrate life and the purpose of the Valley is to learn about life.

12) To stay on a peak longer: Be humble and grateful. Do more of what got you there. Keep making things better. Do more for others. Save resources for your upcoming Valleys.

13) You get out of a valley sooner when you manage to get outside of yourself: at work, by being of greater service, and in life, by being more loving.

14) What counted was not where a person lived. but how a person lived. A joyful rich life is a naturally changing landscape of Peaks and Valleys.

No more prawn fishing at Jalan Harimau

In my earlier entry on where to go prawn fishing, one of the places I'd found on the net and listed there was No. 10479, Jalan Harimau , Taman Century, 80250 JB. Well, I've taken it off the list now because after work today, I drove all the way up to Johor Bahru, queued a good 30mins at the customs, missed eating at a nice Jap restaurant all to check out the place and....nada. No such prawn fishing place. Maybe there was a long time ago, but there certainly isn't any now. I even asked the hawkers and dvd sellers at Pusat Makanan Centre Point (Medan Selera Food Center on my GPS). What a colossal waste of time.

So I had dinner instead at the hawker center. This hawker center is located behind Grand Paragon Hotel in JB and has a wide variety of food choices from claypot chicken rice to zi cha to satay. Despite that, and despite havinga pirated dvd stall right in the middle of the center, I wouldn't say that this is a must-visit, must-eat-at place. I ordered the sambal bbq fish and kangkong from the stall next to the stall named yummy wanton. The cost was RM23 (SGD 10) for both items. The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the bbq fish which was fresh and tasty. The sambal chilli on the top of the fish was also delightfully fresh and spicy enough. However, the kangkong was a disappointment as it was pretty much tasteless and too oily. As for the satay which we ordered from the Malay satay stall (there is a Chinese satay stall), the ketupat was too soft and crummy and there wasn't much meat on the satay sticks. Although it only cost RM 6 (SGD 2.40) which is an unbeatable price, I wouldn't advise you spending calories on that.

And of course, no trip to Malaysia is ever complete without durians! The regular durian seller at Jalan Cantik 8 (he is only there in the night, sells out of a van and is parked in a dark spot) was out of XO durians by the time we got there so we settled for Super durians instead. The cost was RM12/kg (SGD 5/kg) for the two durians I bought back (see pic below) and I ate an entire 1kg durian there by myself. :)

Prawn Fishing at Pasir Ris Park

The first few times I tried out prawn fishing was with my sister after work when she was bumming a ride back from me. Being familiar with Pasir Ris Park where I used to fish with 1 of my ex-boyfriend many years ago (to the extent that he had a single digit amt left in his bank account because each hr cost S$20 and we were but poor students), we decided on a pure whim to check out the fishing ponds. However, while walking around the fishing pond, we stumbled across the prawn fishing ponds located at the side of the large fishing pond. It was relatively deserted on a weekday night.

The first few times we went there (before I got to know of Ebi Culture), our catch-rate was extremely poor - like just 1 or 2 prawns after one whole hour. Other people there were fishing prawns up like pros and there we were standing and waiting. That's the thing about prawning and fishing - the utter sense of helplessness one gets although one is doing everything similar to the person next to you and yet catching squat. However, I find it a useful reminder that we cannot control everything in life. As a line in 1 of my favourite movies (a Korean movie I caught on a flight to Manila for work) goes "We do what we can and leave it to God to do the rest".

Anyhow, this is the very first prawn which I caught prawning. My sister had almost given up after 45mins of not catching any prawns at all and passed the rod to me to hold for the last 15mins of the hour. I saw the float go down, held my breath, struck, and pulled this fella out.

The picture below is the result of our catch in one hour at the prawn fishing farm at Pasir Ris Park. I'll be honest and 'fess up that only 2 of the prawns in the bucket were caught by us. The others were given to us by the operators of the prawning place there. The Slog Reviews: 8/10, using Ebi Culture as a yardstick again, the bite-rates, catch-rates and services provided at this prawning place far exceed those provided at Punggol prawning. 1 old man had almost half a net full of prawns after 3 hours and the crowd there is pretty friendly and sparse (which I like). The operators are also helpful and friendly. They helped us with the baits when at that stage, I was afraid of sawing or tearing up earth worms (my sis still refuses to touch them) and also with unhooking the prawns. And yes, as I had mentioned, they gave us some prawns to take back after seeing our dismal catches. The rods there too, unlike those for rent at Punggol Prawning, are of better quality. If you are new to prawn fishing, this is a good place to spend your S$30. :)

Punggol Prawn Fishing and Geylang Prawn Noodles

After work yesterday, I decided to go check out Punggol Prawn Fishing at Punggol Marina Club. However, I took a slight detour along the way and drove to the end of the road instead which lead me to Punggol Jetty. There were a couple of old men and a group of young boys fishing at the jetty. Peered into their buckets and saw that they had caught really small fishes. One of the old men told me that these were caught using cast-nets. There were also some people shore fishing from the beach but as the weather had taken a turn for the worst, they started to pack up before the thunderstorm. According to the old men, this place doesn't have much fish (like all the licensed areas in Singapore) but I'm glad to have found a lovely place to practice casting with my Shimano Calais reel.

I parked my car along the road leading to the country club (at least the parking is free) and walked in, in the thunderstorm. Although there were a couple of signs pointing to the prawn fishing area (the signs were in the lobby and out of the pier), I could not find the place the first time - maybe it was because of the rain, wind and lack of light. Anyway, the prawn fishing place is located near Pier 1. There are 2 means of access - one through the carpark and the other through the boardwalk along the water edge. As usual, I did not pay to start prawning immediately but sat around watching the bite-rates and the folks prawning. This is a picture of the prawning place at Punggol Marina which consists of three small ponds laid back to back (each pond is the same size).

The Slog Reviews:1/10. Using Ebi Culture (please click here)as a yardstick, punggol prawning, despite its impressive website fails miserably to impress in terms of facilities, prawn size, bite-rates, catch-rates, crowd, service of the staff and rods provided. The ponds are awfully small as you can see from the picture, the prawns caught were NOTHING like that caught from Ebi Culture (see my previous post) but were really small-sized (smaller than one's hand generally) and after sitting there for a good half an hour just watching, most people there failed to catch many prawns (at best, 2 prawns per half hour per rod for one lucky person). The guy in my picture bending over was so desperate to catch prawns that he squatted down and dragged his line up and down but in the end, caught zilch. The man in blue caught only 1 prawn in half an hour and the lady in black who was smoking with a little child nearby, caught nothing. The counter appeared to be manned by a couple in their 30s-40s and a foreign worker. Unlike Ebi Culture, they displayed no interest in engaging their customers personally or even tempting visitors like me sitting there to shell out some $ to prawn. Not outside food and drink allowed on the premises which I can understand but the selection of drinks and food there is very limited. And the rods for rent were cheap thin things - nothing like the sort provided by Ebi Culture. I messaged my prawning kaki about the place and he replied that he had heard how lousy punggol prawning place was too. I'm not wasting S$30 at that place.

Anyway, on the way home, I stopped by Geylang Prawn Noodle at 325 Upper Paya Lebar Road for dinner. It took me quite a while to find the place although I have been to the place several times. It is located along How Son Rd behind a bus stop and parking in front of the row of shops (albeit limited lots) is free. I ordered the 2 in 1 prawn kway teoh soup (2 in 1 means prawns and pcs of meat) which cost SGD 5. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. A bit pricy for the amount one gets but the stocky yet not stalty taste of the soup and freshness of the prawns make up for that. There are also origami type paper on the table which one can and should use to put the prawn shells as opposed to leaving it on the table.

Where to go prawn fishing / prawning

After my last post, I searched the net for places to go prawning or prawn fishing. These are all I could find as of today. I've heard good things said about (1) and (8) but then these are popular places and one must contend with the crowd and competing rods.

In Singapore

(1) Bishan Prawn Fishing Address: 603, Sin Ming Avenue. My review of the place from observing can be found here while my review of the place from prawn fishing can be found here.

(2) Jurong Hill Prawn Fishing Address: 241, Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim(near Jurong Bird Park and located at The Village). My review can be found here and here.

(3) Pasir Ris Town Park Prawn Fishing Address: Pasir Ris Town Park. My review can be found here

(4) Pasir Ris Farmway Prawn Fishing Address: No. 70 Pasir Ris Farmway 3

(5) Punggol Prawn Fishing Address: 600 Punggol Seventeenth Avenue, off Punggol Road (at Marina Country Club). My review can be found here

(6) Yishun Prawn Fishing Address: 81 Lorong Chen Charu (Yishun) (at Bottle Tree Park)

(7) Geylang Prawn Fishing Address: 100 Guillemard road #01-13 (399718)

(8) Geylang Tua Tow Hei Pte Ltd Address: No. 192 , Geylang Road,Ying Lie Building

(9) Marina South Prawn (and Fishing) Pond Address: Marina South near the Superbowl

(10) Westlake Prawn Fishing Address: No 9 , Japanese Garden Road , Singapore 619228

(11) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Costa Sands Address: 1110 East Coast Parkway #01-01 Singapore 449880

(12) Prawn Fishing at East Coast Parkway Address: 1020 East Coast Parkway,Singapore 449878

(13) Prawn Fishing at Sungei Tengah Address: Farmart Centre 67 Sungei Tengah Rd, Singapore 699008

(14) D'Kranji Farm Address: 10, Neo Tiew Lane 2, Singapore 718813

(15) Ebi Culture. 21 Arozoo Avenue. Sadly, it has closed down. My review can be found here.

In Johor Bahru (JB)

(1) Fu4 Lin2 Yuan2 Diao Xia Zhong Xin (福林园钓虾中心) Address: 16 Jalan Pinang 23 Taman Daya 81100 JB

(2) Damai Fishing Village (大马钓虾中心). Address: No 50, Jalan Kassim Noor, Kampung Sungai Danga, Taman Perling 81200 JB

Prawn Fishing at Ebi Culture

Blogging about the freshwater prawns in the previous entry reminded me of how long it has been since I went prawn fishing or to use the incorrect but popular term, "prawning". The last time was 5th December 2009 one day before my regular haunt closed shop due to land issues with the authorities. This is the only picture I have of Ebi Culture - that's my sis's bf in the background and my sis's rod at the side.

I got to know of Ebi Culture when I was buying some deep diver lures at a tackle shop in Beach Rd during lunch time back in Aug 09. 1 of the investors in Ebi Culture was there too and he gave me his namecard. As I was busy flying between Shenzhen and Singapore for the China project, I didn't have time to check out the place till somewhere in early November. I hadn't intended to go prawn fishing that day but only to say hi to the owner since I'd told him I would drop by. Anyhow, I met my regular "prawning" kaki there the first visit (he let me practice some prawn fishing using the package he had) and I grew to love hanging out at Ebi Culture after work at least once a week. There was free parking, the 5 prawning ponds were large enough so one had one's own space to fish, and the staff were really decent friendly chaps. The prawns were also super duper large in size and Ebi Culture introduced yabbies in one of the ponds for a period. Here's a pic of me with one of the yabbies which I caught.


My sister loves prawn fishing too (in fact, it was because of her that I started prawn fishing!) so I introduced her to Ebi Culture. They had this great 1 for 1 ladies' night promo every Tues so I got her hooked to the place. And eventually, she brought her bf along. Alas, the place closed down before the 4 of us could have the prawns BBQ we had planned. Anyhow, here is a picture of one haul in 3 hours in our kitchen sink after one of the trips. My fingers are itchy already - time to find a new place to go prawn fishing!