Sri Lanka is not a common tour destination. Most people would probably travel to India instead. If not for this trip, I don’t think I’ll ever venture to Sri Lanka at all. Would like to thank Deutsche Bank, YF and ZH for giving me the opportunity to explore this lesser-known country, fully subsidized.
Most of my knowledge on Sri Lanka comes from my Sec 3 Social Studies textbook, where the conflict issue between Sinhalese and Tamils is raised as a case study. Thanks to that topic, my understanding of the country is not totally zero (at least I know Sri Lanka is an island…). However this trip has changed my initial impression of the country from being a conflict-ridden land to an exotic and scenically beautiful place. The civil war has already ended FYI.
The food reminds me of the dishes I had from the Indian stall at Engin canteen. Curry and potato seem to be the staple for every meal. Since we had most of our meals at Western restaurants, the taste and spiciness of the food should have already been toned down. So the flavour is not really authentic per se.
Most meals were served in buffet style, so I shouldn’t complain much, though I felt their bread wasn’t very nice (too prata-ish) and the sushi tasted weird. The desserts were great, although some were extremely sweet. Also came across spicy biscuits, oily cake, boiled jackfruit which tasted like mashed potato, and drank a tea which had far too much sugar.
Other than a few designated tourist-orientated shops, there isn’t much one can shop in Sri Lanka. Street shops usually sell daily commodities and groceries. It’s common to see little stalls set up along the roadside selling things like fruits, fish, flowers and even toys. You can see these stalls even at remote mountain roads, where you’ll wonder where customers can come from.
We spent more than 90% of the time outside the more developed capital. There are no ‘expressways’, just major roads which don’t look very major as they have only one lane in each direction. Because of this, overtaking is very common, albeit dangerous. Bigger vehicles with more powerful engines keep on the divider line (the pseudo-middle lane), overtaking smaller and slower vehicles like the 3-wheelers and bicycles, and then swerve quickly back into lane just before the vehicle from the opposite direction zooms past. Near-misses which could possibly result in a head-on collision along the middle overtaking lane seem to be very frequent, but thanks to the locals’ superb driving skills, the accident rate is quite low (I suppose). I didn’t witness any traffic accident at all throughout the whole journey.
Traffic lights are non-existent outside the capital. Drivers often have to make their own judgement on whether to move or stop. Major junctions are either controlled by traffic police, or exist as roundabouts. If I were to drive there, I think I’ll meet with an accident every few minutes. And oh, cows will wander to the road and dogs treat the road as their sleeping ground, so motorists have to be very cautious of such oblivious animals too.
Thanks to the haphazard traffic flow, it’s easy to get nauseous as the bus swerves left and right, trying to bring us to our destination as fast as possible. Most journeys between towns were long, thus making bus rides an agony. Well, this is coming from a pampered city dweller after all.
Oh I've compiled a simple amateurish video on the trip. The clips I took wasn't particularly interesting though. Hope you enjoy it anyway.
Showing posts with label Compare and Contrast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compare and Contrast. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Friday, December 17, 2010
HK vs SG
Hong Kong is a country that is similar to Singapore in terms of size, population and development. Its population is about 40% greater than SG while its land area is approximately 55% larger, hence SG slightly ‘wins’ in terms of population density. The land area probably includes inhabitable hilly terrains, which HK has obviously more than SG. So HK might actually be denser as it seems.
Walking along the busy streets of HK is no easy task. The walkways are narrow and crowded, and I had to constantly dodge the fast-flowing stream of commuters. It becomes worse if you are travelling against the main flow. Needless to say, it is hard to just stop in the middle of the path to examine the shops or check the map for directions.
The crowd in Mongkok on a weekend afternoon is formidable. It feels like Chinatown on the eve of CNY. I wonder how terrible the crowd will become at night, or during festive seasons.
Crossing the road at red man is common, especially at narrow minor roads where there is more movement of people than cars. The zebra crossing does not give pedestrians the priority to cross. It is merely a spot to tell people, “cross at your own risk”.
Comparatively, the vehicular traffic seems to go quite smoothly, at least from what I observed, despite the haphazard-looking road system. Did not experience any kind of traffic jams, fortunately.
Old buildings can be seen everywhere even in the commercial district, many of which are turning black. There are also several maintenance works being carried out, and it is rather common to come across residential blocks wrapped with scaffolds.
Since most buildings are probably built very long ago, they do not utilize much underground space. As a result, train stations could take up a lot of space below ground. Most stations are huge, with several exits that can extend far beyond the main line. Fare gates are usually not restricted to only areas near the platform. The layout is deep and multi-leveled, which means one has to travel up a couple of escalators before reaching street-level. Put it another way, it can be a long walk from the street exit to the train platform, so the phrase ‘XXX is 5 minutes away from YYY station’ might be misleading.
The frequency of their trains is commendable. Throughout the trip, it does not take more than 2 minutes to wait for a train to arrive. However the train can be quite packed even in the weekday afternoon. Crowds will start to form really fast the moment a train departs from the platform.
Announcements are usually made in 3 languages - Cantonese, Chinese and English, in this order. This also applies to tourist sites and many public places. In SG, announcements are usually in English only, occasionally Chinese, and more rarely, Malay and Tamil.
For example, an animal performance in the zoo will only be in English for SG, but will be trilingual for HK. Quite interesting to see how they present the show with a mixture of 3 languages.
HK uses Octopus card, which is similar to our Ezlink card, but can be used for payment in many shops. Hope SG will achieve such level of convenience soon, although I still prefer the traditional method of using cash.
Bus fares in HK do not correspond to distance or stages travelled. It only depends on which stage of the journey you board the bus. It is like getting off the bus without tapping the ezlink card. The maximum fare from that stop until the terminal will be deducted. Hence it is not economically effective to board the bus then alight few stops after where it is still very far from the terminus. I guess the rule of thumb would be, to take the bus that ends close to your destination, in order to make sure the fare is well-spent.
Double-decker buses are quite common. I hardly saw any single-deck buses except minibuses. Even for services with relatively low ridership, like airport-express buses, double-deckers are deployed. Most people would prefer taking the train for its speed and reliability I suppose.
Generally HK people are willing to share seats with strangers when having meals. This is probably due to the fact that their traditional tea houses are usually very crowded and sharing seats is necessary. I guess they also do not like to wait too, due to their hectic lifestyle. This might not strike well with those who prefer privacy however. The place can be quite cramped too, with tables and seats very close to each other. Westerners probably wouldn’t like it haha.
For more pictures, visit ZX blog. Will upload to Facebook soon.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Compare and Contrast
Having watched Japanese dramas for so many years, I grew interested in how they are broadcasted in Japanese television. Their structure and arrangement is quite different from that of Singapore, mainly due to the tough competition for viewership ratings between various TV stations. Here are some of the major differences.
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SG: Dramas are usually 20 episodes long, sometimes 25, or 30 for larger productions. There are also occasional long-running dramas, which are usually aired during the prime-time 7pm slot. Generally, dramas are aired every weekday night. Thus an average 20-episode long drama will complete its run within 1 month.
JP: Dramas are aired by seasons. January to March will see winter dramas, April to June will see spring dramas, and so on. This means at the start of every season, a set of new dramas will be introduced. As prime-time dramas are aired on a weekly basis, this explains why they are usually 11 or 12 episodes long. The short-and-sweet factor is what makes Jdrama so attractive. The plot is presented in a more compact manner, with few draggy moments.
A unique characteristic of Jdramas is that the episodes can be watched separately. Sometimes the plot in one episode may have little relation to the previous episodes. This is to attract new viewers even at the 4th or 5th episode. For example in a police drama, each episode will cover a different crime case.
---
SG: At the beginning of every drama there will be an introductory theme song, presenting various scenes extracted from the show. A short clip flashing the title of the drama signals the start and end of the commercial breaks. At the end of the drama, the scene will ‘freeze’ and credits will start rolling, while the theme or sub-theme song plays in the background.
JP: Show starts right away. No introductory theme song. No short clip to mark commercial breaks. This can be quite abrupt though. However there is still a short few seconds clip showing the title of the drama, followed by acknowledgment of the main sponsors. This usually appears about 10 minutes into the show. If you happen to miss it when watching the show for the first time, you will probably be clueless about the title of the drama for the rest of the episode.
There is still a main theme though, usually played with the credits a few minutes before the show ends. This is interesting, because the credits roll while the show is still going on, at the bottom of the screen. The challenge for the editor is to insert the credits as well as the main theme at the most suitable time, so as to match the mood of the scene. After all the credits have rolled, the show may end at any moment haha.
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SG: Chinese dramas carries English subtitles, and vice versa. Subtitles may spoil the suspense at critical moments.
JP: No subtitles at all. That’s why fansubbers (drama fans who add subtitles) have a very hard time. The production team has no time to add subtitles anyway. Reason will be mentioned later.
---
SG: Most dramas are 1-hour long, with 4 commercial breaks in between. (3 in the past) Thus the effective drama duration is around 46 minutes. Those who often watch dramas online should be familiar with this ‘common’ duration.
JP: Dramas vary in duration. Possible lengths are 30 min, 45 min or 60 min. (effective length: 24, 35, 46 min). This brings to another point.
---
SG: Dramas (as well as any programmes in general), start on the hour or half-hour mark.
JP: Dramas usually do not start exactly on the hour or half-hour mark. They can have irregular start times like 9.03 or 8:56, a few minutes before or after the hour mark. This is primarily due to viewership competition. When a programme ends early before the hour, viewers are likely to switch channels and settle on one that does not show commercials. Hence dramas that start early tend to attract such viewers. As for why dramas start a few minutes later, this is to accommodate for programmes that end past the hour. Viewers are not likely to continue watching a drama from another channel after they have missed the first few minutes. The psychology of attracting viewers can be rather complex here.
However this can be really confusing to people who wants to catch a particular drama! Wouldn’t a drama lose more viewers if they cannot remember the start time?
---
SG: A drama is aired a few months after filming ends. Long-running drama is an exception.
JP: Airing and filming is carried out simultaneously. An episode is aired a few weeks after its filming. This way, the production team is able to gauge the viewers’ response and make necessary changes accordingly. If the response is overwhelming, the drama can be extended by a special episode. If viewership is hopeless, the drama may be cut short, or simply axed.
Simultaneous filming can be rather risky (and stressful as well), in a way that the pressing deadlines must be strictly adhered to. What if an actor or actress is unable to commit to filming due to injuries or other circumstances?
---
Since Mediacorp monopolizes SG TV, I don’t think we need all these ‘extreme’ measures adopted by JP TV to attract viewers. After all the competition does not lie between different channels, but between local and foreign shows.
---
SG: Dramas are usually 20 episodes long, sometimes 25, or 30 for larger productions. There are also occasional long-running dramas, which are usually aired during the prime-time 7pm slot. Generally, dramas are aired every weekday night. Thus an average 20-episode long drama will complete its run within 1 month.
JP: Dramas are aired by seasons. January to March will see winter dramas, April to June will see spring dramas, and so on. This means at the start of every season, a set of new dramas will be introduced. As prime-time dramas are aired on a weekly basis, this explains why they are usually 11 or 12 episodes long. The short-and-sweet factor is what makes Jdrama so attractive. The plot is presented in a more compact manner, with few draggy moments.
A unique characteristic of Jdramas is that the episodes can be watched separately. Sometimes the plot in one episode may have little relation to the previous episodes. This is to attract new viewers even at the 4th or 5th episode. For example in a police drama, each episode will cover a different crime case.
---
SG: At the beginning of every drama there will be an introductory theme song, presenting various scenes extracted from the show. A short clip flashing the title of the drama signals the start and end of the commercial breaks. At the end of the drama, the scene will ‘freeze’ and credits will start rolling, while the theme or sub-theme song plays in the background.
JP: Show starts right away. No introductory theme song. No short clip to mark commercial breaks. This can be quite abrupt though. However there is still a short few seconds clip showing the title of the drama, followed by acknowledgment of the main sponsors. This usually appears about 10 minutes into the show. If you happen to miss it when watching the show for the first time, you will probably be clueless about the title of the drama for the rest of the episode.
There is still a main theme though, usually played with the credits a few minutes before the show ends. This is interesting, because the credits roll while the show is still going on, at the bottom of the screen. The challenge for the editor is to insert the credits as well as the main theme at the most suitable time, so as to match the mood of the scene. After all the credits have rolled, the show may end at any moment haha.
---
SG: Chinese dramas carries English subtitles, and vice versa. Subtitles may spoil the suspense at critical moments.
JP: No subtitles at all. That’s why fansubbers (drama fans who add subtitles) have a very hard time. The production team has no time to add subtitles anyway. Reason will be mentioned later.
---
SG: Most dramas are 1-hour long, with 4 commercial breaks in between. (3 in the past) Thus the effective drama duration is around 46 minutes. Those who often watch dramas online should be familiar with this ‘common’ duration.
JP: Dramas vary in duration. Possible lengths are 30 min, 45 min or 60 min. (effective length: 24, 35, 46 min). This brings to another point.
---
SG: Dramas (as well as any programmes in general), start on the hour or half-hour mark.
JP: Dramas usually do not start exactly on the hour or half-hour mark. They can have irregular start times like 9.03 or 8:56, a few minutes before or after the hour mark. This is primarily due to viewership competition. When a programme ends early before the hour, viewers are likely to switch channels and settle on one that does not show commercials. Hence dramas that start early tend to attract such viewers. As for why dramas start a few minutes later, this is to accommodate for programmes that end past the hour. Viewers are not likely to continue watching a drama from another channel after they have missed the first few minutes. The psychology of attracting viewers can be rather complex here.
However this can be really confusing to people who wants to catch a particular drama! Wouldn’t a drama lose more viewers if they cannot remember the start time?
---
SG: A drama is aired a few months after filming ends. Long-running drama is an exception.
JP: Airing and filming is carried out simultaneously. An episode is aired a few weeks after its filming. This way, the production team is able to gauge the viewers’ response and make necessary changes accordingly. If the response is overwhelming, the drama can be extended by a special episode. If viewership is hopeless, the drama may be cut short, or simply axed.
Simultaneous filming can be rather risky (and stressful as well), in a way that the pressing deadlines must be strictly adhered to. What if an actor or actress is unable to commit to filming due to injuries or other circumstances?
---
Since Mediacorp monopolizes SG TV, I don’t think we need all these ‘extreme’ measures adopted by JP TV to attract viewers. After all the competition does not lie between different channels, but between local and foreign shows.
Monday, December 14, 2009
从 Bukit 到 Pasir
从 Bukit 到 Pasir 我就爱新鲜加刺激
郁闷的舒缓途径尽情 party
灌一杯 mocha coffee 化身为 ice lemon tea
一触即发的臭屁
Soon I'll be descending from the hill and shifting to the coast. Nope, not orchard haha (refer to 1 Apr 2007 entry).
It will definitely save me a lot of travelling time. Doesn't take more than 30 min to reach school. Nearest MRT station is harbourfront, which makes NEL area more accessible. Moreover I'll be going against the majority commuter flow during peak hours. Direct buses just outside which can take me to the unfamiliar east side, eg. Kallang, East Coast, Bedok, Tampines, etc. Of course there are still buses that connect me to west side, eg. Jurong, Boon Lay, Clementi, Choa Chu Kang, and my old Bukit region. Ang Mo Kio, Yishun and Woodlands areas will become further though. But with the completion of Circle Line in the coming years, it shouldn't be much of a problem anymore.
I'm thinking if there's any way to get up onto the viaduct just above the main road outside, because it's blocking the beautiful sea view. (although it's full of 'sea giraffes')
郁闷的舒缓途径尽情 party
灌一杯 mocha coffee 化身为 ice lemon tea
一触即发的臭屁
Soon I'll be descending from the hill and shifting to the coast. Nope, not orchard haha (refer to 1 Apr 2007 entry).
It will definitely save me a lot of travelling time. Doesn't take more than 30 min to reach school. Nearest MRT station is harbourfront, which makes NEL area more accessible. Moreover I'll be going against the majority commuter flow during peak hours. Direct buses just outside which can take me to the unfamiliar east side, eg. Kallang, East Coast, Bedok, Tampines, etc. Of course there are still buses that connect me to west side, eg. Jurong, Boon Lay, Clementi, Choa Chu Kang, and my old Bukit region. Ang Mo Kio, Yishun and Woodlands areas will become further though. But with the completion of Circle Line in the coming years, it shouldn't be much of a problem anymore.
I'm thinking if there's any way to get up onto the viaduct just above the main road outside, because it's blocking the beautiful sea view. (although it's full of 'sea giraffes')
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