Visit Kathmandu 2016 - 10 things you need to know to plan your trip to Nepal

Kathmandu - A Tourist Destination?

I just returned from Kathmandu after the First Humanitarian Mini maker Faire held in Kathmandu.

I did some travel, and let me introduce Kathmandu to you.

1) Kathmandu has 4 seasons, and it has polluted air... and it floods easily when it rains.

If you are planning to go, make sure you are not there during the monsoon season to avoid the rains, and bring the right clothes. Kathmandu has 4 seasons and it does snow sometimes.

There are plenty of old diesel buses and trucks, and air is polluted. Bring some form of breathing mask to help you walk around outside.


2) Power Cuts. There is no power in Kathmandu during some part of the day. It can range from 7 hours daily to 14 hours depending on season. Remember to have solar chargers to charge your phones and other essentials.

3) Water and food is safe -- only for restaurants, hotels or guest houses. Remember to buy bottled water. Avoid ice and local food places. There may be a high chance your stomach cannot take the level of bacterial found in their local water.

4) Internet Access -- You can get Internet access by buying a Ncell card with credits. There 3G/4G is available, and you can use GPS / Smartphone to navigate. Everything is relatively low cost as well.

5) Nepal is safe -- Don't worry about rape or getting mugged. Although the people are relatively poor, the country as a whole is safe. There are no street lights however, and lots of idiots who are on the roads. Everyone is impatient and road is bad. So be careful walking in the streets at night and take care crossing the roads.

6) Poor infrastructure -- India was bad, Latin America was bad... Kathmandu is much worse. The roads are bad, public transportation overcrowded and traffic sucks. Plan your route well. Ask a local. The taxi can get you around and you need to know landmarks around the area you want to go.

Taxi is very cheap, each trip can be from US$1 - US$5 (Patan Durbar Square - Kathmandu) but at night, expected to pay 2 times more, and in the rain, pay even more. Same trip that cost you $US3 (about 300 rupees) can cost $15 (about 1500 rupees) but you can always bargain and find other drivers.

7) Tourist attractions are relatively undamaged by the earthquake. Repairs are ongoing and looking good. Except for the Darahara Tower, everything else escaped damage and is ongoing repairs.

Within Kathmandu there are a few must go sites.

1) Bouldanath Stupa
2) Patan Durbar Square
3) Swyambunath Temple
4) Bhaktapur
5) Kathmandu Durbar Square

They are not really damaged, and you can find a way around the entrance of each place to aviod paying entrance fee. Instead, support local economy by buying handicrafts and food.

8) Guest Houses are relatively cheap. -- If you can plan around showering in the later afternoon (solar water heater) you definitely should stay at guest houses. They range from shared bathrooms to a tiny bathroom in your own room.

The cost in Patan and Kathmandu is from about US$8 - US$15, and maybe slightly more in Pokhara.

9) Food is relatively inexpensive and good. I've walked into Japanese restaurants and paid US$4 for ramen, and US$5 for Bulgogi... Having momos (steamed dumplings) will cost you US$2. Beers at bars are about US$3 - US$5.

10) And remember, when you visit Nepal. Buy handicrafts and do eat out. The Nepalese community is relatively tight, and even when you spend $$$ in Kathmandu and the cities, the money does trickle down to the villages.

Most of the food is locally grown, and organic as farmers can't afford pesticides and fertilizer. Instead of donating money, there are lots of fair trade handicraft stores which sells bags, boxes and much more. These stores also hire people from marginalized communities to plan to end poverty.

If you are planning to travel. Please consider Nepal. It is very much different from other countries, and definitely very affordable.

-- Robin Low

Ghostbusters 2016 Movie Review

I watched Ghostbusters, solely because there were some scenes shot in Boston Chinatown. I've read some reviews and was confused. This movie was actually pretty funny.

This is a complete reboot, non of the previous Ghostbusters storyline was in there, and it was updated to 2016. There were also some Cameos from the original movie. (No Harold Ramis, because he is no longer with us)

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I'd like to say that I enjoyed the movie. Its a good comedy, which could be made a lot scarier with today's CGI technology, but they decided to keep it a comedy with ghosts.

I really like the way the story was built up, to make sense of why they wanted to be Ghostbusters, why they knew science and technology, etc. But they did not try to explain too much and the pace was good, and the story was always progressing. 

I think many people were uncomfortable with the all female cast of Ghostbusters, but they actually made it work, and the whole feel of this reboot is owned by the new cast. The comedy was pretty good, and it was a fun movie to watch, I'd say its even better than Independence Day.

It was a lot more of a Comedy rather than an action movie, and the final "boss" seemed relatively easy to take down. 

Overall, I'd say this is a good fresh reboot of the movie and it is worth watching.

Rating: 7.5/10 

-- Robin Low

Reasons to get a drone.

I'd get a drone, train for hours to fly it well, and go for this trip.

This is one of the most compelling reasons to get a drone.

Was flying my drone over a forest, and some interference made it fly weird and it ended up still in the trees of San Francisco.


-- Robin Low

Hedo Hotel - Taipei Main Station - Taiwan (Hotel Review)

I am doing  few trips on the Taiwan HSR and have been trying to find a decent Hotel for under US$100 Near Taipei Main Station.

After trying a few, I've booked 2 nights at Hedo Hotel. Located at No 35, Section 1, Kaifeng Street, Taipei Main Station, Taipei, Taiwan 10044. Hedo Hotel is a relatively new hotel and I hope this review can help you decide.

Location: This hotel is 1 block from the Bus Station and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Taipei. Location wise, it is about 10 mins walk from the HSR station, not great if its raining and you are dragging along luggages.

The Hotel Room: The room is relatively ok sized. I paid US$60 for my room which comes with 2 super single beds. The bed is relatively comfortable and the TV is relatively big. Its a 50" TV. The room is very new and clean. It has 2 110V power plugs with multisockets which allows you to put any plugs inside and 2 USB power plugs to charge your phones.

There is a small fridge in the room. They provide 2 bottles of water, sandals, towels, toothbrushes, hair dryer, etc. The WiFi is also relatively fast. The room is fairly comfortable. Its 11 degree celsius outside and I set the room airconditioning at 20 degrees, and it feels really good in the room. The lighting is adequate, and even without windows, its relatively comfortable.

The toilet: The toilet has a bathtub, which allows you to shower from the top, a hose or a tap. The water controller is sensitive and you can control the temperature well. The water pressure and temperature is also constant and you do not get intermittent water like other hotels. The hotel is clean and nice.

The Staff: The staff is attentive and helpful. There is also plenty of them around.

Overall, I like the hotel.


The Cons:
Location wise, not the best, you can already check this out on Google Maps and decide.

The free breakfast is pretty bad. It has a limited supply of food choice and it is simply not good. The area near Taipei Main station can also be pretty expensive to find breakfast too.

The toilet is nice and clean, but the WC is poorly placed and with the toilet seat up, the button to flush is covered and awkwardly placed. Its new but poorly executed. The towel holder is also loose and looks like its falling down anytime.

For the number of floors and number of rooms, there is only 1 elevator, which really sucks when everyone is getting to breakfast or checking out.

There is also no place to hang your jackets, no cupboards, nothing. You have to drape it over your luggage.


For its price, I'd say, its ok, but there may be better options out there.

-- Robin Low

Rust-oleum Reflective Finish

Was thinking of getting some reflective paint for more visibility when riding at night. After searching for the different paints, I decided to try out Rust-oleum.

1) The Spray

To spray on the reflective paint, coat thin layers on your prepainted smooth surface. It leaves behind a translucent surface. The coating sticks well and coated in an even layer.

2) Drying

The spray paint dries well and in 15 seconds, you can apply a second layer.

3) Finish

The finish once dried provides a good layer of protection.

4) Working with the surface

I tried using 2,000 - 3,000 grit sand paper and wet sand the surface. It did not make the surface smoother, but create black blotches. These black blotches are hard to work with and hard to clean off.

This is like one of the Matt surface paints where you need to have a very good painting skill because when you make a mistake, you need sand everything off and redo everything again.



This is what I have done to my front fender

I have sanded down the reflective layer 3 times as I've oversprayed it the first time and I had dust stuck on the second time. It is a lot of work, but overall, it gives an ok Matt look. Does not look much different than the original paint, just a layer of Matt coating on top which looks like a pearl layer.

When you shine light on it in the dark, you can see the pearl in the paint reflect well. It works a lot better on light colored surfaces, but as you can see, it still work on black surface.

If you want a glossy finish, you need to coat a layer of gloss on top of the reflective paint, then wet sand and polish.

Overall, I'd say this is a relatively good product if you know what you are doing.

-- Robin Low

The Peanuts Movie Review

If you have watch all the Charlie Brown movies, chances are, you might think you've seen much of this movie before. All the same Charlie Brown jokes can be seen in this movie; Charlie Brown flying a kite, Charlie Brown kicking a football, "The little red hair gird", Charlie Brown pitching and the baseball flys towards him making him naked, Snoopy's fantasies, etc.

Most Charlie Brown movies make you feel for Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown fails at everything he does, and does not give up. Most of the other characters are very supportive of Charlie Brown and anticipate his failure, and when Charlie Brown succeeds, it becomes newsworthy.

I'd like to say that this animation of Peanuts is done pretty well. It still feels very much like a Peanuts comic strip, but with 3-D. It‘s also a neat extension of Schulz’s style, but the 3-D makes Pig-Pen's dust look AWESOME.

I like the way the pace of this movie is going and how the stories, especially Snoopy's fantasy is somewhat linked to the storyline unlike other Peanuts movies. The storytelling is spot on. The Snoopy sequence, though non-verbal tells a lot of the story without saying a word.

This movie is also much less dark. With Schulz, Charlie Brown's BIG failure and bittersweet endings in a boy named Charlie Brown, can be a rather depressing movie to watch, but this Peanuts movie, which feels much like a more upbeat reboot of all the Charlie Brown movie reveals Charlie Brown's virtues and eventually having the Little Red hair girl noticing him.

This movie hasn’t been made exclusively for adult nostalgists, many of the kids liked the movie and it is set to inspire a new generation of Peanuts and Snoopy fans.

Overall, this is a great movie, it is actually quite inspiring and feel good at the end. With the good editing, pacing and storytelling, this movie is enjoyable to watch.

Overall: 8/10

-- Robin Low

Shinagawa Prince Hotel Review

I have been in Tokyo several times and this is a pleasant surprise. Shinagawa Prince hotel is a pretty great hotel for about US$100 a night (on Sunday) The room size is surprisingly big for a Hotel in Tokyo area.



Shinagawa Prince Hotel is located about within a 3 minute walk of the Shinagawa station which has Yamanote line which can bring you to popular destination like Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya. The hotel is also connected to a shopping mall with a foodcourt, cinema and a bowling alley.

The rooms are relatively big, and the toilet is very comfortable. Unlike many other 3 - 4 star hotels, this hotel provide toothbrush, hairbrush and razor as well. The only thing I'd like is bottled water, but there is a vending machine on the same level and you can get free ice.

I am impressed by the tour coaches that arrive and there are even several tour coaches with wheel chair access that come to this hotel. From Haneda or Narita Airport, the Airport Limousine located at all the different terminals come directly to this hotel, making it very convenient to arrive for your first night or leave on hour last.

You have a big choice for breakfast at several restaurants in the mall, including "Top of Shinagawa" a restaurant on the 39th floor, overlooking Shinagawa. The buffet choices in most of the restaurants are pretty good.

Overall, I'd say this hotel is pretty good value for money. My stay at this hotel is pretty descent and I look forward to come back again.

Rating:

Location: 8/10
Room: 8/10
Price: 9/10
Breakfast: 8/10
Service: 8/10

This is good value for money.