Trincomalee, Sri Lanka (Review)

තිරිකුණාමළය Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Located on the East Coast of Sri Lanka, Trincomalee is essentially a beach location. The beach is beautiful at Trincomalee and Pigeon Island -- located near Trincomalee -- has lots of corals and fishes as well.

Popular tourist destinations include its beaches at Uppuveli, Salli and Nilaveli, used for temple visits, surfing, scuba diving, fishing and whale watching, and the Kanniya Hot Springs.

The Portuguese fort at Trincomalee is very interesting and the old temple inside is beautiful. The Koneswaram temple, with a recorded history from the 3rd century BCE and legends attesting to classical antiquity attracted pilgrims from all parts of India. The shrine itself was demolished in 1622 by the Portuguese (who called it the Temple of a Thousand Columns), and who fortified the heights with the materials derived from its destruction.

You can get stunning photos of sunrise and the Milky Way is simply too obvious given the dark surroundings. The beach resort (Pigeon Island) is ok, nothing spectacular, and the town has limited shopping availability. But as a plain old beach, you definitely get peace and tranquility without any loud party music.

Definitely a great relaxing spot.

-- Robin Low

Pigeon Island

Anti-Gambling Ad Campaign #Fails

So good even Jimmy Fallon joins in the spoof...

With Germany trashing Brazil 7-1, this Singapore Ad has gone viral. But if this was true in real life, perhaps its not the problem of gambling that the kid's father has when he bets all the savings on Germany, it may be match fixing..

"The anti-gambling campaign comes as some Singaporeans have been embroiled in one of the world’s biggest match-fixing scandals. Last year, an inquiry by European police forces uncovered a global betting scam run from Singapore."

But for now, there are so many hashtags to be used on this ad that ran everyday during world cup, with the government spending a lot of money, and not getting international attention. Perhaps more attention than when Singapore an Youth Olympic Games.



#AlwaysTrustDad
#KidisGoingtoHaveGoodLife
#GamblingPays
#DadsCanTellFuture
#IMRichBiach
...



-- Robin Low

Beerfest Asia 2014 - Tips and Info for #BFA2014

Beerfest Asia 2014 is here again, and I visited it yesterday.

To me, Beerfest Asia started on a wrong note. I rode my motorcycle there and was turned away for reason: "No more motorcycle parking" However, as I turned around, 2 Harleys ridden by White Guys entered.

After parking at Marina Square, because places around like Singapore Flyer does not allow motorcycles as well, I managed to go back because I've already planned to meet some friends there, and I really did feel discriminated against as another few white guys on motorcycles are allowed to enter again.

Tip #1: Sistic pre-purchase of tickets sucks.

When arriving, for my friends who did not buy tickets, they paid $20 and bought a ticket, and entered. Easy...

When you pre-purchase tickets from SISTIC, you need to follow a long queue, wait for them to find your name, then they give you the tickets. For each ticket, you also pay a processing fee, so in short, you pay more to queue.

There was quite a few choices for beers at Beerfest, but upon closer inspection, I found even more ciders! Not that I have anything opposed to ciders, the choice of ciders is actually pretty good.

Being in a backdrop of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay sands and the Singapore Flyer, the scenery is actually pretty good.

Tip #2:  Purchase your chips wisely.

The minimum purchase for the chips is $30, and the beers range from $5 - $??
Although the chips can be refunded for 80% of original cost, as there are $11 drinks and drinks of other denominations, sometimes the $1 more required makes you want to just pick another drink.

Good thing is, they do offer change. You get 3 - $10 chips and when you buy drinks, they do have $1 chips for change.

Go to the booths, talk to the folks, some stalls have great offers and I managed to get 6 drinks for $30, not a bad deal at all!

Tip #3: Come after dinner. Even though there is food provided by Harry's, much of the food is pre-prepared and relatively expensive. But heh, you are there for beer fest right? Might as well drink more beer to fill you up!

Find the beer kaki... For extra bonus.

Like I said, lots and lots of Cider. Nonetheless, good ciders... There is a relatively good selection of beer as well, but as I've been to the Good beer company, I've drank most of them before.

Overall, Beerfest Asia has comedy, lots of music and tons of beer.

Remember to bring along more friends to have a great time.

Tip #4: And don't ride motorcycle there parking is at Marina Square, pretty far walk, unless you are a white guy.

-- Robin Low

The Good Market Review (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

I just visited the Good Market in Battaramulla. It is a social enterprise focused to promote organic farming / produce, fair trade products and ethical handicrafts of social enterprises.

The Water's Edge is a pretty location, great for an evening stroll, and this Good Market seems to have found a great location to be in. There are quite a bit of variety of the products, and though the products are not cheap, the target market of these products are the expats living in Colombo, and the price is rather reasonable.

For the most parts, the food is rather good and spices smell awesome. Some of the products made by handicapped people or villagers still need a little more work though.

I like the vibe of the location and it does get more crowded when the sun is setting.

Definitely a place to visit when you are in Colombo.

-- Robin Low