On Skiing and Singlish

CHARMONIX - MONT BLANC

18 - 23 March 2008

Chamonix is a popular winter sports resort in France. The 1924 Winter Olympics were held here. As the highest European mountain west of Russia, Mont Blanc (4808m) holds a special allure for mountain climbers, and Jon Krakauer, in an essay in his collection Eiger Dreams, described the town as "the death-sport capital of the world" because Chamonix serves as an ideal playground for almost all types of outdoor activity, especially in their more extreme variants, such as ice climbing, rock climbing, extreme skiing, paragliding, rafting, canyoning... Chamonix is also a haven for advanced skiing and snowboarding... the valley has about six separate ski areas... Many of these provide challenging terrain, especially off-piste, with runs down to Switzerland. (wikipedia.org)

the pretty town of chamonix, lying in the valley surrounded by towering french alps

so much for a first ski experience.

i must say that i've been spoilt. to a world-class ski resort, with advanced pistes (runs). thanks ah, petrified me with fear and forced me to learn faster. i was the only person on the trip who has never gone skiiing before. david & sarah have been skiiing since they were like 6 or something; james picked it up a few years ago; jimbo is an expert snowboarder; wibke is on her 2nd ski trip, but learning snowboarding this time. i was on my own.

carol goes skiing

we flew into geneva airport on 18th (tues) night, where james & sarah (david's sister & brother-in-law) picked us, Jimbo & Wibke (their friends) up and whisked us off in the rented MPV, to Les Houches, the heart of the Chamonix valley. there, a very pleasant apartment awaited us. we settled in, and skiing was to begin bright and early the next day.

our living quarters!

armed with our ski passes (special prices for etudiants - students- yay!), and our skis (blue for the boy and pink for the girl)

ski-rack loaded!

pretty snowflakes on the car

learning skiiing was really painful. james taught me for the 1st morning at a beginner's area, and then i got a 1-hour lesson while everyone else had lunch. that was it. in the afternoon, we zipped off to 'la flegere', where we had to take a huge gondola (cable-car) up 1000 - 2000 + metres. everyone tried to stick together on the first run down the green (lowest level of difficulty) slope, but i took too long and kept falling down that they all just went ahead without me. david waited around and helped me put on my skis again each time they fell off, but i still took mighty long. like 45 mins to cover 1.2km, as opposed to 10 mins. after 2 runs, i told david to go ahead without me, so he went on the blue (2nd lowest of difficulty) and red (advanced, a notch above blue) runs with sarah & james. i struggled along, and repeated the same run on my own. that was my achievement for the day.

james: ski instructor par excellence

clockwise from top left: (1, 4, 5) the place we went (2&3) the chairlifts, (6) signs ata cross junction showing where to go. i'll take the green, thanks.

the next day, all the advanced skiiers were getting more adventurous. they decided on a new ski area 'le tour', which didn't even have any green slopes! so the easiest runs there were the blue ones. not good news for a noob like me. david went with me on a long blue run, which had so many bends because it went around the mountain (and my turns were still not good, i was so scared of falling off the cliffs!) so i went rather slowly; and when steepness that i've never encoutered before, combined with narrow pistes bordered by dangerous looking snow cliffs, i was defeated. of course, i went way too fast for my liking down the slope (not that i could help it) , and braking distance increases with speed, right? so when i found myself not braking in time, i started to panick, and because skiiing is so frustratingly counter-intuitive, i didn't lean forward to help myself to stop like i'm supposed to, so i stopped myself the only way i knew how - by falling down halfway down that slope. that wasn't too brilliant either, because every time i fall down, my beginner skiis will snap off to prevent me from twisting my ankle or knee. and putting on those skis again on a slope is no mean feat. david tried to help, but we still took like 10 mins or something like that to put on the skis again, which got him really frustrated. as for me, i was seriously scared. i knew that even after i put on those skis again, i still had to get down that same slope somehow. with some tears and a lot of grit, i completed that blue run. as if that trauma wasn't enough, david started to get ambitious and suggested that we go on the red piste next, because it was 'wider and only a little more steep than the blue'. i protested, but upon his re-assurances that it would be ok, i (very bravely and foolishly) went along. i did well at the beginning, but there was this really steep part where once again i panicked, and didn't turn properly, and my beginner skis snapped off again. grrr. we tried really hard to get them back on for me, but to no avail. this nice french lady even came by and offered to help, but after a few tries i decided not to hold her back, thanked her and told her to 'allez' (go). james & sarah skiied by, and tried to help as well, but couldn't. (told you it was really steep) so i decided that i would just slide all the way down. david took my skis and skiied down (yup he's good. skis are really heavy). but james & sarah said that i'll end up with a big hole on my pants if i do that so i had to walk down the slope instead. they were really sweet as to wait for me to go down a little bit before zooming their way down. but walking down a slope angled at about 60 degrees at an altitude of 2000+m was traumatising enough for me. i was ready to give up. after lunch i left david to do the more difficult red runs which were apprently very scenic (but please la, i'll be too busy concentrating on not falling down - who am i kidding, i'm simply not anywhere near there yet) and james offered to teach me for a bit on another blue and 'very wide and rather gentle run without any cliff edges'. he taught me a great deal about becoming stable on a slope and some tips on how to put on my skis by myself, which helped a lot in boosting my confidence. but of course, i was still too slow, and he left me to my own devices (i.e. bid farewell & go down the rest of the blue by myself). that slope wasn't gentle at all. i struggled, took it one turn at a time. by this time my knee and shin was already hurting like mad from all the force unfairly placed on them. i was going so slowly that david spotted me while going up on the chair-lift, he got to the top and skiied down to find me still halfway only halfway down that run. heh. at the end of the day i took the cable car back down to the valley, which david, james and sarah skied down. they were really fast too, i followed them with my eyes (and camera) all the way down and took quite a few paparazzi shots.

it's a beautiful day... along the super hard piste (yeah i didn't get to see that WHILE skiing)

skis hanging precariously outside the cable-car on the way down (yup i thought it was a nice shot)

but i have improved, and by the end of that day, if not skill-wise, i learnt confidence, the single other most important thing in skiing. fear causes falls. and i stopped falling. each time i fall, i get scared and exasperated and i want to give up; then i manage to ski properly towards the end of a run and actually feel the breeze on my face and actually enjoy myself for that short while, and i'd feel like i want to go all over again. see how it plays with my feelings? evil.

sarah and her snowboard.

kids inspire me, they look so cute all bundled up in thick ski outfits, and with their short little skis, they seem to be fearless going down the slopes. i also tried to get free lessons by following those people with instructors for a while, but they go too fast and i lose them.

girls decked in pink, and a little boy who can barely walk, learning to ski. (this is why singapore cannot have a winter olympics team)

qn: what are those people in the background looking at?

ans: this. a breath-taking spread before them.

the next day was good friday. and the weather, who has been really kind to us in giving us clear days with snowy nights so that we can ski on nice soft snow but not be hampered by poor visibility and risk of avalanches, decided to turn against us. i say it's because we didn't go to church on good friday : anyway, so david and i decided to take a day off skiing, and do some other touristy stuff like go up the 'mer de glace' (literally: sea of ice), some famous largest glacier in europe (i don't think that includes scandinavia). but the weather was so bad that they closed it, as they did with a few other ski areas. we also tried to buy the swiss pass, which would allow us to take the scenic train ride from chamonix to martigny (a town in switzerland) and from there make our way to the rest of switzerland. lo and behold, after driving around to the various train stations, we found that they didn't sell it, and that part of the train route was closed anyway because of the weather. we wanted to drive to martigny to get the pass, but was advised against doing so even with snow chains on. so many cars were skidding even at 30km/hr. thank God for safety. it was david's first time driving on the left hand, and in such heavy snowfall. to give you an idea of how heavy it was, we parked our car for say 15 mins in a lot, and when we return, we have to plod in knee-deep snow to get to the car doors. oh btw, i got a chance to practice my french quite a bit that day too, which made me very happy. haha. i miss french.

outside the main gare (train station)

little david in a sea of white. he thinks he looks really cute, therefore this picture now adorns my desktop.

we spent the rest of the evening sitting around, drinking hot chocolate, and...

building a giant snowman in the small backyard

my 3rd day of skiing was not that much better tho. this time, we went to 'les grand montets', an area only for advanced people. the rest of them were itching for more action, you see. and that area is famous of off-pistes (which means unmarked paths which have not been groomed, i.e. anywhere you want on the mountain). and once again, the greens didn't exist. that was also the day i got david really angry with me because he brought me on the blue again, and because of the heavy snowfall the night before, the runs were full of little 'snow hills', which made for a very bumpy and unpleasant ride down, which in turn caused me to keep getting stuck, and hence was very slow again. this time, he gave up on me altogether. he refused to help me when i fell. and when my poles got left some 10 metres up the slope, i had no idea how to get back up to reclaim it. i had to resort to asking strangers around to help me get up (from my awkward fallen position) and retrieve my poles. he then proceeded to miss lunch to reclaim lost time, and went on the reds and blacks (a notch above red, and also the hardest) by himself. talk about throwing a tantrum.

the last day was probably my best. i told david to leave me alone, because they had grand plans to cover 2 ski areas that day, and go all out at full-speed. i didn't want to hinder them, so i just went on my own, and ocassionally with wibke, who also asked to be left alone for the same reasons. we went back to 'le flegere', and they wanted to cross over to 'brevent' from there but the weather didn't allow it as a lot of pistes were closed. it was easter sunday, and we were unusually early on the slopes. i finally got the chance to ski on fresh powder, which felt rather good. but on a green, of course. the rest of the day, i ventured to a blue by myself a couple of times, which the pros entertained themselves by going on the blacks and off-pistes most of the day, landing themselves in heaps and heaps of snow. i was quite happy with my progress, and how far i've come. after days of being thrown out of my comfort zone, i could now conquer slopes that i never imagined i would. to end of the whole ski experience, david went with me on a super high (starting at 2396m) and long run (4+km) blue run. i was really tired by the end of it, but at least it all ended on a positive note!

that's the blue slope (yes the one with small dots of people) i went down all by myself! =) doesn't look steep from the chairlift (from which i took this picture, but believe you me, it's a lot harder when you're one of the small dots...

carol - tired after 4 days of skiing

night activities

usually, after skiiing, we would head into chamonix town for a drink or walk around, and then proceed back to cook dinner. we took turns to cook, and david and i cooked cabonera. haha. on the last night, we decided to give oursleves a treat by going to a restaurant for some french fondue and raclette. (ok, technically, james & sarah treated us). i've never had meat fondue before, it was an eye opener, and it's been ages since i had raclette, and this one was different anyway.

another view of chamonix ville

yummy raclette with a GIANT piece of cheese

before going to sleep, we'll just sit around the house, chat and laugh. the company was great. i'm really grateful for the invitation to come in the first place; and for wibke and jimbo, who made the trip so enjoyable.

our kind hosts =)

the closest thing we have to a group shot: carol, david, sarah, wibke, james (jimbo)

now for the bit about Singlish:
due to the nature of the company we were with, we had to speak proper english. it was really funny though, when people broke out into singlish purposely. wibke and david kept speaking in super extreme ah lian/beng language, which was pretty funny; everyone kept trying to make james speak singlish (yes he's a full-fledged brit who has left his ACS days far behind); jimbo was trying hard to learn singlish, he even had the oxford singlish dictionary so that he can be fluent next time he comes to singapore.

we stayed 1 day longer than we had planned to, because of the glitches in getting the swiss pass. we went back down to geneva on Monday morning, waking at an unearthly time of 4am.

after 5 days of prim and proper english, we had to switch (effortlessly) to fluent singlish.

next stop: switzerland, where luyi, bingkai and maccann were waiting. but i shall write about that after my corporate finance exam on wednesday, and try to get down to some serious studying. sigh.

chamonix-mt blanc: been there, done that.

love.

vanity fair

i love retail therapy.

but i wasn't even need any therapy when i got waylaid by vanity fair. was merely (and innocently) on my way to the supermarket (yes my favourite activity) to get meat for dinner when i saw....

an aldo sale in the middle of the atrium of the shopping mall! i had to check it out... and i came out with a pair of purple peep-toed flats (ok i dunno how to name the shoes... but owellz.. it had a bit of a wedged heel - ren, like your red velvety ones except that it's not completely covered... ankle tie i think that's what it's called).

anyway, my point was that,
i was waylaid.

vanity of vanities... heh.

on the loss of time

but i made up for it by waking up super early today. yay, all that training waking up early for skiing in chamonix has tuned my body clock well...

my handphone is so cool. it adjusted the time automatically for me when we had to move our clocks forward by 1 hour at 3am last night. (why must it be such an unearthly hour?!)

but i lost 1 precious hour of sleep... grrr!

anyway, copenhagen is now only 6 hours behind singapore. just.... fyi... not that it matters anyway. heh.

Beautiful Belgium

Here's my super out-dated entry about belgium, typed while still on the trip, just never got down to posting it with the photos.

Belgium (Leuven, Brugge, Antwerp)
29 Feb – 2 Mar

We arrived in Leuven, a little university town east of Brussels at about 10pm. Met up with Lester, and walked in the rain with him for 20 mins to his place. I had to switch bags with Debbie after we were halfway there cos it got quite heavy. Didn’t help that i’m getting weaker too, nowadays. She was strong enough to scale 3 storeys of stairs to get to Camy’s room, where we were to stay for the next 2 nights. Camy and Lester are SMU students on exchange to Leuven, but Camy was away in London for the weekend and she kindly consented to let us sleep in her room, how nice! Both of them live just a few doors away from each other in a student’s residence anyway. We were so tired after cycling and rushing around all day that we just took a shower and went to sleep.

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The next day, we decided to head to Brugge, apparently the most visited place in Belgium. Not uncharacteristically, we overslept, and only managed to get on the train at 9.35am, instead of 8.35am. BTW, jinjoo decided to stay in Amsterdam, so there were only 3 of us, plus Lester. It was an hour and a half’s train ride away. On the way, we passed by Brussels, which pple have generally advised us to miss because of its lack of charm and appeal. We took heed and contended with just passing by the major train stations and catching glimpses of the high-rise buildings Lester describes as ‘Shenton Way’...

Brugge is a medieval town, so when we arrived, we felt as if time rolled back a few hundred years. The cobbled streets looked worn, and the buildings look really rustic. Horse carriages were a common sight, and the clicking sound made by their hoofs added to the feel.

We visited the 'Ten Wijngaerde' beguinage, a nunnery which used to house widows and other women who joined the beguine movement. Today it is a benedictine monastry. Its grounds were so beautiful and peaceful, we didn’t dare to speak loudly (not that I could anyway, my voice was half-gone).

Just walking down the little streets and looking at the rows and rows of little shops was an interesting activity in itself. Lester told us that Belgium is famous for 5 things: Chocolate, Fries, Mussles, Waffles and Beer. 4 out of the 5 above-listed I love – guess which. Literally on every single street, every where you turn your eye, there would be a chocolatier, and a waffle and/or a fries stand, a café and a place that sells mussles in pots. It was like junk food/gourmet heaven. I couldn’t resist peering into every chocolate shop. Even the cakes and bread in the bakeries looked so good. Lester couldn’t resist getting both a waffle and a cake in the early stages of the day, while the rest of us walked into this super crowded chocolatier and got some chocolate, fudge and truffles. I knew from that moment that I was gonna spend quite a bit on chocolate in Belgium. Of course, pralines were invented in Belgium as well, and I wasn’t gonna pass on that either. I love Belgium. And chocolate.

The plan was to have mussles for dinner, cos they weren’t cheap. But we couldn’t wait any longer and decided to have them for lunch instead. But by that time, we were around the city hall, a really grand looking square, and the start of an expensive looking shopping street. And the restaurant that we walked into was rather posh-looking. The waiter immediately knew we were gonna be cheapskate and didn’t even bother to serve us properly. Anyway, we got what we wanted. Ordered 2 pots of mussles, and they came with fries. It was very very very good, though it ended up costing us 10 euros each. Ouch.

they need to translate everything into 4 languages: flemish, french, german and english. told you it was a confused country...

famous sculpture by michelangelo in one of the cathedrals

apparently, belgium is also famous for lace... but not THAT famous i guess...

After lunch, it was time for dessert. So we abandoned plans to scale 365 steps up the tallest tower in Brugge for a good view. We headed straight to Choco-story this chocolate museum which tells of the origins of Chocolate. Once again, we tried to ask some random stranger for directions. But the problem is that Brugge is so touristy that the chances that you actually stop a local is quite slim. Anyhow, this Belgian couple we stopped were really helpful- they were from another town, but they tried to help us figure out, and when they couldn’t, they stopped a passing policeman on his motorbike and made him direct us. Another sign of true helpfulness and hospitality. Btw, lester’s as touristy as us la. He’s only been in Belgium for 3 weeks and haven’t even gone to Brugge himself. The chocolate museum was fantastic tho – a really educational experience. The word ‘chocolate’ was adopted from the earliest discoverers of the chocolate drink. Chocolate used to be drunk by only the noble man and royalties, and was mainly brought to the world by the Spanish, who ruled Belgium in the past. It wasn’t until a few hundred years ago that the common man started to enjoy chocolate drink, and only much later that chocolate in the solid form appeared. Of course with the industrial revolution and all that the process became easier to mass produce and chocolate became more common, blah blah. But the cacao seed has always been really important. It used to be the currency in the Mayan dynasty, and 100 cacao seeds would buy you a slave, while 10 would buy you a rabbit, or something like that…. There was also a praline making demonstration, which is in the video. The demonstrator was fantastic too – she just rattled off in 3 different languages… and her pralines tasted really good too… haha.

check out how pralines are made!

Coming out of the chocolate museum, we were all feeling so enlightened about chocolate, and in particular, why Belgian chocolate was so fine and famous all over the world (Leonidas, Godiva, Guylian, Cote D’Or, etc.), we were really inspired to buy chocolates for ourselves. And when we saw this chocolatier which was having some promotion – 250g for 4 euros, we decided to buy some for ourselves. It’s not that cheap la, about 50 singapore cents a piece I think? But well, it seemed like the right thing to do. Sigh now that I’m typing this I feel like having one right now! I had wanted to buy some leonidas for david, but thought that I’d do that back in leuven the next day so that they’d be fresh longer. So I thought I’d settle for some cheaper chocolate for myself. But it turned out that leonidas was one of the cheaper brands around. All those brands I’ve never heard of, plus those small shops selling home-made chocolates and pralines were about the same price or more expensive. Haha.

chocolatiers galore!

Anyway, there wasn’t much else to do after all the eating we did, so we headed back to leuvan for frozen pizza dinner, after spending so much money in the day. The winds at leuvan are crazy, I say they are worse than Copenhagen, and I hate the way the wind plays with trash on the ground, making them twirl around in circles and fly everywhere, like there’s a mini whirlpool coming at you or something. So we had Lester’s special frozen pizza + salami + egg for dinner. It was not bad! Haha. I ate a lot. Oops. But I was feeling quite tired and sick so I chose to stay in while the rest went out after that for ice-cream and some drinks. Stella Artois and Hoe Gaarden are the home brands, and they cost like 1 euro a mug or something, something ridiculously cheap, like tuborg and Carlsberg in Denmark.

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The next day, we decided to just walk around Leuven a bit and then go to Antwerp, the 2nd largest city in Belgium. But Leuven was a dead town on a Sunday, everything was closed, including most eating places, so we ended up at Quick, this fast food place for brunch (gives you a clue of how late we woke up, and we slept before midnight the night before). We bid goodbye to our friendly host and made him promise to buy some chocolates for us before going back to Singapore in summer.

the beautiful city hall

camy's room, and lester, our host...

Antwerp was about 1 hour away by train. First thing we did when we got there was to try and get train tickets back to Amsterdam that night, and dump our heavy bags into the lockers. We were really thankful to get the train tickets cheaper than we had expected, which helped us to rule out of the option of having to take the bus, which would have make me sick, and cause some inconvenience because it doesn’t bring us to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. All in all, our tickets to Belgium cost 22.70 + 17.30 euro.

antwerpen station is an attraction in itself, it's SO grand. and the bus conductors are so cute, their uniform is classic man. i think it's in tin-tin...

and the locker which we squeezed all our luggage into.

Antwerp is a completely different town from Leuven or Brugge. It was in a state of transition, while there were lots of majestically grand buildings, there were also lots of modern looking buildings around, giving the town a rather confused look, as Debbie would put it. Nonetheless, we were just glad that there was actually life in the town, on a Sunday, despite the fact that all the shops were closed. Not leonidas tho, I saw it open and better yet, there was a promotion! 750g (40-45 pieces) for 10 euros! I got a box for david and some other stuff, feeling both satisfied and guilty at the same time. I really did spend a lot on chocolate in 2 days. I wanted to buy some to send home with uncle kp in march for the family, but they said that the chocolate should be consumed within 2 weeks otherwise they lose their flavour. Sorry… I know it’s quite rare that one can find something that is actually cheaper in Europe than in Singapore. And 4 times cheaper too.

the giant box of leonidas nicely wrapped up! :)

the combined stash of chocolate we lugged back all the way from belgium!

the stoic buildings in antwerp, unfazed by the changing tides of time

the gothic cathedral; even commercial buildings seem like from out of a heritage collection: the Hilton, and Fortis, the belgian national bank.

Anyway, we basically walked around the town a bit, and then hunted for this old-fashioned café which sold this famous chococino – a fusion of coffee and chocolate. And they serve it with a piece of homemade chocolate. This country is crazy about chocolates I tell you. The drink wasn’t great, but the ambience was. Or maybe we were just too lazy. Deb and I just sat there for a long time and refused to move, while jiamin was eager to hunt down this shop which sold a hundred different types of beers. Anyway, just any random supermaket has like a zillion different types of alcohol on display. It’s crazy. Too bad I couldn’t really care less about it.

a random 'supermarket'/ beer store

Some other interesting little places in this place include a bar which is full of figurines ousted from the nearby Cathedral during some religious riots (also the oldest Gothic cathedral in Belgium), called ‘Holy Beer’. Antwerp is also the city of diamonds. De Beers is Belgian and lots of diamonds are cut by Antwerpen hands.

Holy Beer

There was also a fries museum which we did not go into. Belgian fries are generally thicker, not salty, and usually come with some kind of sauce topping, which costs extra.

We also tried some authentic Belgian waffles there. I think the Singapore Belgian waffles are fake or poor imitations…. They only got the shape right, but not the taste and texture.

The other great thing about Antwerp was that they had student discounts for some eating places, so we decided to go into this Italian restaurant for dinner. The place is really cute, cos the table clothes, lampshades and waiters’ uniforms are all the same pattern – red and white checker. It’s funny to see all the tables, lamps and waiters decked in the same cloth. And so I ordered the cheapest pizza, 4.50euros before discount. And it turned out to be an entire pizza. I was determined to finish mine tho. Jiamin and Debbie gave up and decided to pack it for breakfast the next day. But I took about 1 hour (the longest I’ve ever spent eating – we had lots of time anyway) and I finished the whole pizza. Disgusting, but true. We hung around at macdonald’s for the free wifi before taking the last train out of Antwerp to Amsterstam Schiphol so that we wouldn’t have to spend so many hours in the airport.

our dinner (mussles and pizzas) & dinner place

other interesting sights: a really small car, signs sold at a flee market, scouts (ahem) and brownies doing stupid stuff in a quaint old town square

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I am now sitting in a wheelchair beside some random powerpoint in the airport typing this. (Debs ingenius idea...) Debbie and jiamin are fast asleep in the chairs nearby. The time is 3.41am. I should go catch some rest soon. Danish homework beckons tomorrow morning as well, argh. I don’t want to go back to school! But then again, it’s about time to go home, David’s had some bathroom choking nightmares while we were gone… but I also need to guard my 2+kg of chocolates! Dilemma! It’s about 3.5 hours more before we check in and leave BENE for good. It was a good trip. For the tastebuds at least! Not so much for the wallet. Now I need to concentrate on getting well so that I can eat the chocolates I bought. And prepare for skiing in 2 weeks! (: