While there’s the large, famous research base on the outskirts of Chengdu, I had read on another blog about a volunteer program at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Great Panda – Dujiangyan Base. For around EUR100 per person, you get to spend a day learning about the pandas and get up close.

Dujiangyan is quite a bit outside Chengdu, probably a 90mins drive. We decided to take public transport for the experience. I think public transport is always a great opportunity to get to know a country and its people better.

Already the day before we had made the trip out to Xipu Railway station (accessible by metro line 2) in Chengdu’s north to buy train tickets. Apparently they sell out. For RMB10 per person (EUR1.30), we took the 07:53 train the next day to Qingchengshan. The modern train went up to nearly 200km/h and took us in less than half an hour to our destination. From there we took a bus for a short ride to the Panda Base, getting there just before 9 and in time for the start of the program.

Train from Xipu

The modern train took less than half an hour

Train ticket from/to Chengdu Xipu

Entry to the Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Our volunteering program starting with cleaning the panda cages. Step 1: scoop up all panda poop. These guys poop a lot. Apparently an adult eats around 20kg of bamboo a day (and that’s almost their entire diat) and poops 10kg. Solid. Step 2: scrub the panda cages and spray disinfectant. Step 3: replenish bamboo supplies. Employee of the year award goes to the person at the base who figured out that tourists are willing to pay money for this. The Chinese tourists visiting the base had their laughs.

Naughty Panda baby trying to escape its enclosure

Two Panda baby twins

While we were doing this, the pandas were observing us. One “panda house” we couldn’t clean because the bear did not want to come down from his tree, not allowing us to enter his area.

This fella wouldn’t allow us to clean his “kingdom”. He was busy climbing trees.

After some downtime were we got to walk around the base, we got to my favorite part. Feeding the pandas! Of course, bamboo.

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

Dujiangyan Panda Base

The Red Panda at Dujiangyan Panda Base

The Red Panda at Dujiangyan Panda Base

For lunch, the staff took us to their canteen, which was very tasty. This was followed by some more free time, followed by a documentary about efforts to reintegrate pandas into the wild. If I remember correctly, there are roughly an estimated 1’200 pandas left in the wild and 300 in captivity. The Dujiangyan Base houses 30 of them.

Lunch at the staff canteen

We skipped the last part of the day, baking panda cakes (which pandas are fed in addition to bamboo) and instead started our way back to Qingchengshan and then Xipu in Chengdu.

Getting up close with these unique animals is a very special opportunity that I can only recommend. I don’t know whether there are other places besides Dujiangyan where one can get that close. When we were there, there was a total of around 10 volunteers and I suspect it is only bound to become more popular. E-mail them at pandaeducatecenter@163.com if you want to go.

Our volunteer certificate

Bread stall at the Nukus Bazaar

After waking up in Nukus and seeing what a dreadful and depressing place it is, the last thing I expected was a world-class arts museum. But that is exactly what I found. If you are interested, below is some further reading material on the museum and its history:

• Documentary “The Desert of Forbidden Art”
• Article in the Guardian 

Exterior of the Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Mueseum)

While the entrance ticket is moderately priced, I did fork out USD20 for a photography permit (probably the most I have spent on a museum ticket ever) so you my dear readers get to see some footage. Y’all better appreciate

Below are some impressions no particular order:

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art

Nukus Museum of Art

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

The last known photograph of Igor Savitsky

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Go Switzerland!

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Since the museum also depicts the history of the region of Karakalpakstan, there are exhibits from the people as well as jewelry etc

Nukus Museum of Art

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

Nukus Museum of Art (Savitsky Museum)

N.M. Nedbaylo (1971) -Hunter

D. Mamedova – walk down memory lane

D. Mamedova – Village

D. Mamedova – Door

D. Mamedova – Autumn sunset

A. A. Osmerkin – Model with a mirror

Bukit Timah is the highest point in Singapore with an impressive elevation of 163m. However it is also on of the largest areas of primary rain forest left on the island.

We met early in the morning at Byx, a mountain bike rental shop where you can get decent bikes and helmets for S$40.

The trail is about 6km long and took us around 1h20mins to complete. It was a lot of fun! Make sure to bring plenty of water (at least 1.5l per person) and go early.

Inside Dairy Farm Nature Park

Most of the trail is inside the forest, only small stretches are out in the open

The biggest star in the industry, Rajinikanth, is one of Asia’s highest paid actors and stars in Kabali, this year’s Kollywood blockbuster. The movie takes place in Kuala Lumpur, hence the Malaysian and Singaporean Tamil population (around 7% of the population) have been quite excited in the past weeks. Air Asia even painted an aircraft to promote the movie.

Tickets went on sale only about 24 hours before the first screening due to the pending rating by the Media Development Authority Of Singapore. I was lucky to be among the first to book a ticket online before the servers crashed when the booking site opened.

So last Saturday night six of us (almost the only non-Tamils) in the cinema went to see the movie. It was quite a cultural experience. When Rajini first appeared on the screen, the entire theatre was cheering. We enjoyed the movie but probably won’t be watching a Kollywood movie every weekend from now on. Go see it if you get the chance!

Kabali ads outside Rex Cinema

Kabali ads outside Rex Cinema

Kabali is the only movie that Rex is showing at the time – there was even at show at 4.15am due to popular demand

One of Sri Lanka’s prime national park for wildlife is probably Uda Walawe National Park. It was on our way from the Hill Country to the southern coast, so were happy to spend a night. Initially we opted for a sunrise safari and eventually added an afternoon safari as well. Park entrance fees are around LKR3’000 (€20) per person and on top we paid around LKR3’500 for our vehicle including driver. Somehow a “guide” made his way into our vehicle and while we at first thought he was included, it turned out he wasn’t. He said he was a volunteer and did indeed help us to spot a bird here and there. But overall his presence didn’t help so much. But of course we tipped him.

Without further ado, here are some of my photos. Please not that I am not a bird enthusiast, so all the photos showing birds will just have the caption “bird”.

Birds near the lake

Elephant tribe making its way to the lake in the evening

A mother with three babies/teenagers

Closeup

And since I like elephants so much, here’s another photo of one eating

Bird(s)

Birds

Bird

Bird

Bird

Small bird

Birds

Buffalos

Bird

Giant lizard

Birds at the lake

Crocodile with a bird circling above it

Sunset on the way back

If you recognize any of the bird species, feel free to leave a comment.

We loved the tour and had a great driver that managed to get away from the crowds. We thought it couldn’t get any better so didn’t end up going again in the morning. If you can, build this into your Sri Lanka itinerary – highly recommended!

Sepaktakraw differs from the similar sport of volleyball in its use of a rattan ball and only allowing players to use their feet, knee, chest and head to touch the ball.

So we got tickets for that and drove out to Singapore Expo where the event would be hosted. Again, security was very tight with metal detectors. Not sure what kind of crowd Sepak Takraw normally attracts. When we were there it barely attracted anybody. We specifically went for the final of the day, but even then, it was hardly 50 spectators and we soon found out why.

The Sepak Takraw hall

The show surrounding the game was well organized, yet there weren’t many spectators – this is the Thai team

Turns out there are different disciplines of the sport. There is a action-oriented, competitive version where you drop kick the ball over the net (which is what we wanted to see). And then there is the not-so-competitive variant called Chinlone (originating in Myanmar) that we happened to catch. Remember playing hacky sack in high school? Was kinda fun, right? Remember watching others playing hacky sack? No? Right, because that was boring.

Yea, so Chinlone consists of two team separately passing the ball in a circle with the team winning that can complete more circles in 2×10 mins. Long story short, Thailand dominated the final against Malaysia and won 264-200.

The Malaysian team lost…

…against the Thai team…

…in a game which was very clear from the beginning.

Time was running out until the kick-off to the big football game at 8.30pm so we hopped into a taxi over to Jalan Besar Stadium. With Myanmar playing, we expected a full house and were not disappointed. In fact, it was so full that the stand that we were booked in was full already and we were directed to another stand.

A packed Jalan Besar Stadium

National Anthem of Myanmar

Myanmar fans during the national anthem

While I won’t go into details of the game, here are my take-aways:

• Myanmar fans make up a fantastic crowd – the stadium was sold out (8’000) and I would say at least 7’000 were cheering on Myanmar
• We were wearing Myanmar jerseys and got numerous high-fives – our sector was really excited to see foreigners support their team. We must haved been photographed over 50 times
• 80 minutes into the game, some fans started going around with big plastic bags collecting the trash. Really? Yes, really. I wouldn’t say the stadium was spotless when we left it, but quite close to it.
• Philippines as the underdog scored the first goal after 10 minutes… and ended up losing 5-1 in what was a one-sided but exciting game

Myanmar about to score

The game’s over – 5-1 Myanmar!

All in all a great evening. While we’ll probably give the next Chinlone sessions a pass, we bought tickets for Myanmar’s last group game against Cambodia.

• Brunei
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste
• Vietnam

While some of the sports are rather international (such as football), there are some very SEA specific sports on the schedule, for example Sepak takraw (stay tuned for more on that).

Since I live right next to one of the football venues, the Jalan Besar Stadium, I couldn’t pass up to catch a game or two.  Unfortunately I was too slow to buy a ticket for the Singapore games. The first match I went to see with some friends was Philippines versus Cambodia, generally ranked as the weakest two teams of the group (the other three teams being Singapore, Myanmar and Indonesia).

We sat on the Filipino side of the action, along with about 200 hundred supporters. Football is generally not the most popular sport in the Philippines and accordingly the fans weren’t was well organized as other teams. The Cambodian community not being very big in Singapore, the stadium was far away from full. Security was (almost) as tight as at a high-risk game in Europe with metal detectors etc deployed and no alcohol served.

A rather empty Jalan Besar Stadium

In the first half the Philippines started out weak and then further deteriorated. The game went in one direction only and the half-time score should have been higher than 2-0 for Cambodia.

Filipino supporters while it was still 0-0

The Philippines came back a bit stronger but didn’t manage to turn around the game and ended up losing 3-1.

The first half went mostly in the direction of the Filipino goal…

… and the second half mostly continued where the first half left off at.

The Cambodian fans celebrating their fans

The game is over – 3-1 for Cambodia

While some of these might not attract a lot of fans in the stadium here, you’d be surprised at the number of viewers online (all games are broadcast via Youtube). This is the number of viewers for Myanmar vs. Indonesia 12 hours after the game finished:

That’s right – over 170’000!

Getting to Larkin meant once again crossing the Woodlands checkpoint and after my recent experience, I wasn’t too keen on that. And this time round things did go a lot smoother. After a non-stop bus ride to the border, we quickly cleared immigration on both sides and soon found ourselves at the Larkin Bus Terminal. From there it is a 15mins walk to the stadium. Unfortunately tickets cannot be bought online but they were still selling them at the stadium for either MYR30 (€8) for the grandstand or MYR10 (€3) for open seats. Naturally we went for the latter.

JDT vs Kelantan F.C., 18.04.2015

Fans tend to go to the stadium fairly early and when we got there around 90mins before kick-off, the stands were already quite crowded. It was quickly evident to us why it is worth to go early: inside the stadium barely any food was sold but outside there was a large night market for food and (original and original-copy) merchandise. After filling our stomachs and making sure we blend in with the latest fan gear, we entered the stadium. Malaysian hospitality was great and we managed to get great seats. The game started soon after a prayer and the singing of the regional anthems of Johor and Kelantan. The stadium seemed to be more or less sold out and there was also a large crowd of Kelantan supporters. The JDT fans kept completely quiet when Kelantan was singing their anthem which was a sign of mutual respect.

Food and merchandise before the game

Stadium view

The Grandstand

JDT fans

While last week’s 0-0 was not the most exciting game I had ever seen, this week’s match proved to be much better. Kelantan was up 0-1 after 10mins which was a bummer. However by half-time JDT managed to turn the game around and was up by 3-1! Needless to say the atmosphere was great and we decided to make our way over to the main block of JDT supporters, a large group that basically celebrates the team nonstop for 90mins.

In the main fan sector

Celebrating the 3-1 victory over Kelantan F.C.

We didn’t end up watching much of the second half (which was fine since no further goals were scored) but instead had a great time celebrating with the fans and trying to learn some of the Malay chants. We were all impressed by how vibrant the stadium was and at the same time completely peaceful. Since no beer is sold, everyone was completely sober – a sign for me that the ban on alcohol for some games in Europe shouldn’t necessarily dampen the excitement of the fans.

To give you an idea of what the atmosphere was like, here’s a video of JDT fans in the national stadium in Kuala Lumpur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQiKIftRJjM

Getting back to Singapore was hassle free although it does take time. By the time we were back at the Larkin bus terminal around 11.15pm there were still busses across the border and although there are no queues at immigration at this time of the day, it wasn’t until shortly before 1am that we were home.

Great experience and highly recommended to any football enthusiast!

This past weekend they played against Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT), the team based across the border in Johor Bahru. While the Lions’ stadium is usually not that well visited, we expected there to be a number of fans coming over from Malaysia for the game.

Jalan Besar Stadium

Getting tickets was straight forward and cheap at S$8 per person. We decided to join the Johor fans this time and were not disappointed. Getting into the fan sector was not so easy as we had to prove that we are truly supporters of the guests and also had to show our IDs.

Ticket

The atmosphere was great and while the quality of the game was not at Bundesliga level, it still made for a very enjoyable evening.

JDT fan sector

View of the game

We were the only mat salleh (Malay for caucasian) in the block and ended up making friends with one of the fan groups. So now we are invited to join them for JDT’s next home game against Kelantan FA in Johor Bahru. While tempting, hopefully crossing the border will be easier this time round.

By the way, the game ended 0-0.

Snack during half-time (Tiger beer now sporting the retro design for SG50)