Communist Cuba

The long awaited trip to Cuba finally happened last week! Booking the flight with Cubana airline was a total bitch. Rogie tried booking it at 1st but the transaction was over before he could even type in his credit card no to pay. The next thing we know, the price rose from US$250 to US$312. Feeling extremely disgusted, we decided to head down to the airline office to book the ticket. It turned out that the rate at the office was a flat rate of US$312 the whole year round. When we asked if she could help us to look through the internet, her reply sent us walking down the streets in search for an internet cafe - there was no bloody internet in the airline office!! When we finally settled down in the internet cafe, the Cubana website continued to irritate us further. Nyan and me wanted to try booking for a flight that comes back a day earlier than Rogie but the stupid airline only has flights that cost US$250 if we were to come back the same day as Rogie or 2 days earlier so we had no choice but to book for flights that come back on the same day as Rogie.

So off we went to Cuba - Me, Nyan, Rogie and Gustavo (from Chile). Air Cubana was an interesting plane to be on.. We could literally see the smoke of the air con just by sitting in our seat.. when it was about to take flight, there was so much smoke anyone would have thought the plane was on fire.. but no matter how bad the plane is, no plane can be as bad as Viva Aerobus. I swear thats the only plane where the pilots smacks the plane on the ground while landing. Having safely landed in Cuba, we thought everything would be fine from then on.. Never did we expect to be stopped by this black custom officer. He was just plain weird - took our passport and stared at it for what seems like hrs, refused to open his freaking mouth to tell us what´s wrong and started walking off with our passport. Thank god Gustavo came to our rescue and the black guy finally stopped harrassing us. Once we pass by the customs, it was Rogie and Gustavo´s turn to get into trouble - they were suspected of taking drugs purely based on the fact that Rogie was from Holland and Gustavo was from Chile. So they conducted a check on them before we finally got out of customs. I´ve never had so much trouble in a single day of travel before!

7 days in Cuba was all i need to have a basic idea of how a communist state is like.

1. The government knows everything - there was once when the cab driver took us to club to see if we wanna go in and when we decided not to, he had to get the guard outside the club to sign on his card. We were guessing that´s how the government keeps track of everything.. haha

2. They are not allowed to buy and sell their cars which is why they are still driving the antique cars we see during our parents´ era.

3. They are not allowed to buy and sell houses - houses are passed down from generations to generations. For people who do not have a house, here´s the way to get one: get married to someone who has a house and get him/her to give u the house and then get a divorce.

4. Tourists are only allowed to sit in tourist taxis although we ALWAYS take the illegal ones - the driver usually tells us not to snap any pictures when he drives pass the police checkpoint in case he gets stopped and checked.

5. The only thing they ever eat is pizzas and bread with ham and cheese. Their pizzas are called pizza with cheese which is weird for us cos pizza naturally should have cheese in it.. so basically we have been eating pizzas with no ingredients for a week..

6. Cubans survive on rations from the government. Medical subsidies by the government is very good cos medicines are really cheap there.

7. Any job can easily be better off than working as a professional in Cuba. Professional salaries are like shit in Cuba.

8. There is no internet access in Cuba. If there is, its 56k modem.

9. There is a song in Cuba which contains a word that sounds similar to the pronounciation of ¨Singapore¨ and the meaning of that word is to have sex. Everytime we tell people we are from Singapore, they laugh so now we know why they laugh.

10. Cubans rarely smile and stares more often than ever.

Not sure if i missed out anything.. haha.. but all i can say is that a week in Cuba is really a unique experience which i will never forget! Haha.. too unique to forget......

Yvonne

Toga Party

If there's anything that i've done the most here, i have to say its partying... haha.. there's always a party going on.. so all we need to do when we're bored is to ask around.. So this time, we were invited to attend a toga party. If u do not know what is a toga party, go google toga.. u will know what i mean instantly. I was actually getting quite sick of all the house parties because they were all about the same.. people just go there to drink and get drunk so its kinda boring for me cos i don't like beer.. So as usual, i was contemplating whether to go for this one as well.. Eventually i decided to go since most of my friends are going (peer pressure.. haha).. So we got the cloth and strings that we needed to make a toga and wait for the time to leave.. An hr before, everyone in the house were cracking their brains over how to make a toga out of that piece of cloth and it got me really excited about the party.. I guess i've never really been to a party where i had to dress up for a particular theme.. no.. i should correct myself.. i HAVE been to parties with themes but i never bothered to dressed up.. haha.. so i got all hyped up with designing myself an outfit and i really enjoyed myself a lot!

My toga gown!

Nyan's toga. He insisted he wanted purple and Rogie got him a shiny purple cloth.. haha.. no matter how he dresses himself, we all agree that he looks like an Indian selling snacks in the mama shop.. (we refers to me and vanessa.. haha)


Isn't he the most blissful guy on earth? 5 girls fawning over him.. haha

Rogie insisted that he's a monk for the day and so we have to respect him, don't we?


Nyan and guapo! For those of you who don't know any spanish, guapo means handsome. Guapo is Carla's friend and when he 1st came to our house, Nyan called him Guapo and so from then on, we never bothered to ask or remember his real name.. He adopted a new name on the day we met him - Guapo.. Haha..

Kiss with Mahsa from Sweden! Oops~

Show some sexy legs, baby! Uh oh.. sorry for the unglam shorts.. hehe

Nyan and his newfound interest, Soly!! This guy has 2 paintball fields behind his house in the states.. Now u know why he's Nyan's newfound interest..

Polish girls! They take very beautiful pictures!

Chips, soft drinks and alcohol

Psychology classmates from France

Nyan daring Vanessa to down Vodka for 5 secs.. Rogie was the accomplice..

Can u believe it?! They brought their mask to the party! Haha..

As usual, Carla got really drunk and slept on the couch.. we had a hard time waking her up..

Picture before leaving for supper!

Taco Felix - Our favorite taco place for supper!

~Yum yumzz~

Posted by Yvonne

Lucha Libre!

Despite the huge amount of pending homework, projects and readings, we decided to go and take a look at the famous Mexican wrestling that everyone has been talking about - LUCHA LIBRE!! Those who has watched Nacho Libre will know what i meant.. haha.. and we got to watch it live this time! I never like wrestling because i couldn't understand why people would see in front of the tv to watch 2 or more ugly and muscular (sometimes fat i think) guys fighting one another. In fact, i never understood why there was such a show in the 1st place. But now i know. People pay to watch WWF for its entertainment value. Here i am, watching it live and i have to say that it is really an interesting experience that i will never forget! Another thing that amaze me is the fact that this is a family activity. There were kids who look as young as 3-5 years old watching it. Also, i heard from Arturo that on some days, the women fight too.. haha..

They already started when we went in. We bought the most expensive ticket which is 100 pesos (13 SGD) so that we could get the front seats. It was worth all our money when u get to see them fighting right in front of you. Slamming each other with boards and rubbish bins, jumping off the stage onto the other guy, spitting at each other and once in a while, flying towards the audience. It was kinda hilarious to see everyone running off from their seats and yet frantically trying to get a good picture of them flying towards the audience.

One thing i find amusing about them was how fake some of them looked when they were hitting one another. Like the way they shake their hands and legs to portray the pain when the opponent was on top of them and they couldn't move. I couldn't stop laughing.. haha.. But some were really good and i just stared at them in awe. But there were some,

Emo Lucha Libre.

I don't know what he is. Batman? Haha.. but he was really happy to pose for a picture for our camera.

Skeleton man!!

This match needs parental guidance cos there was this guy who was a gay wearing pink outfit and a flowery scarf. I think he's just portraying himself as a gay for entertainment sake but who knows, i might be wrong.. haha.. But he was touching the privates of his opponents all the time during the match. He kept kissing them too. Needless to say, u should know who won this match. Haha..

They fell from the stage. Two obese man flying from the stage, imagine the impact. Haha..

Preparing to jump off the stage onto his opponent

Ultraman assault!

Slamming the guy with a board

And then a rubbish bin

But he eventually won!

The audience went crazy when the whole thing ended. All of us started climbing up onto the stage to "fight" and take photos. So of cos, Nyan was one of them. Looks like he can be a wrestler too! Haha..

Poor Siv..

Mask for remembrance sake! 80 pesos each!

Posted by Yvonne

Puerto Escondido

The bus ride from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido was a ride to hell. We took a night bus, hoping that we could catch up with some sleep and that time will pass faster.. Halfway through the night, the bus started making turns every 3 secs.. The road became winding from i dun know where (Pochutla i think) and it went on for 2 hrs straight.. It was as torturous as you can imagine it to be. We didn't get much sleep and the ride felt like it was going to take forever.. Nonetheless, the hell we went through were all worth it when we got to Puerto Escondido!!

Breakfast! Free flow of toast with butter before our main course arrives! Yum yum~

Sitting in our favorite cafeteria.. it has the tastiest cinnamon buns i've ever tasted and we couldn't resist the temptation to buy it each time we walk past the cafeteria.. Best of all, it has stir fry! Haha.. And the food here is really cheap as compared to all other restaurants along the stretch of road..

Vanessa and her scooter. She almost got into a couple of accidents on the road!!

My 1st time on an ATV!! Ok.. i wasn't as brave as Vanessa so all i did was to ride it in the empty carpark outside the bus terminal.. after that, i let Nyan do the driving.. haha.. Even so, i think i almost killed Nyan and some pedestrians cos i changed the wrong gears all the time.. lol..

Some castle looking structure at the end of the beach

All of us tried surfing while we were there!! It was really fun at 1st and then it got really tiring.. haha.. but still all of us enjoyed the experience!

People parachuting!

Posted by Yvonne