Pommie Travels

Hostel Review: Prince of Wales Hostel, Singapore

victoria — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:52:54 +0000

The Prince of Wales hostel was recommended to me by, well, everyone. Located in Little India, the hostel is positioned in a more colourful district of Singapore so if you’re looking to avoid the expensive restaurants, shopping malls and the squeaky clean boulevards and stay somewhere a little more exciting and vibrant, then I recommend staying in Singapore’s Indian community.

Walk out of the hostel doors and you’ll see colourful street stalls filled with vegetables, flowers, clothes, luggage; just about everything you can think of. Smell the burning of incense and the spices coming from the tasty Indian food in the restaurants and watch the crowds of Indian men buying gold and standing on the streets holding hands.

The hostel itself is an Aussie pub which attracts expats, locals, and backpackers young and old. The drinks are relatively cheap for Singapore and there is usually something going on in the bar whether it’s a live music act, a BBQ or a special event. If you’re staying in the hostel then beers are $5 and if you buy 9 you get the 10th free. The accommodation is clean and cheap at $18 per night, with one large dorm split into blocks of 8. Outside is a courtyard where there’s a free breakfast in the morning; coffee, tea, fruit and eggs and bread to cook yourself. Laundry is $3 for a wash and $2 for a dry, and it was possible to rent a towel for $2 too. If you don’t want to drag your bags on the MRT to the airport then you can book a shuttle bus for $8 at the reception.

The only downfalls were that I could only access the wifi downstairs in the bar which was a bit frustrating, and for the number of people there were only three showers and a couple of toilets which are used by non hostel-goers too. I didn’t have to queue too often though and overall the bathrooms were kept really clean.

If you’re a sucker for hostel pets like me, you’ll love the hostel dog Jessica!

The relatively small size of this hostel means it’s a really good place to meet people and socialize so if you’re staying in Singapore and want to do it cheaply, I would definitely advise anyone to stay here!

Sentosa- Singapore for Beach Lovers!

victoria — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:30:34 +0000

For those of you traveling to Singapore who perhaps prefer the laid-back beach vibe as opposed to a bustling city, I suggest you head to Sentosa. The first thing I asked when I arrived at my hostel was “Where is the closest place there is water and I can lie in the sun?!”

I took the MRT to Harbour Front Station for $2.60 and then the Monorail from VivoCity Level 3 for $3 return (there is also a return bus which is $2 if you want to save the extra buck!) When you get to the Beach Station there is a free tram that takes you to the beaches, and I can recommend Tanjong beach, which is a little quieter and has a bar called The Shack which plays great tunes and attracts the younger crowd on a weekend.

A little piece of advice though; if you’re on a budget and don’t want to pay $6 for a Fiji water make sure you stock up on some snacks and drinks in the 7/11 at Palawan beach before you head over there!

If you ignore the huge ships off-shore, the trams, the Disneyworld-style resort, the food courts and the Robinson Crusoe-style suspension bridge you might be forgiven for thinking that you are relaxing on a real beach!

Two Funny Signs of Today

victoria — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:53:49 +0000

Fancy a hair cut like this? Maybe a nice Mullet? The go to the Indian Saloon in Little India, Singapore!

For the first time in my life, I went to a public swimming pool where ONLY speedos were allowed! Surely they should be banned for life! No board shorts?

After 6 months, Pommie Travels hits Singapore!

victoria — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:33:55 +0000

After 6 months, Pommie Travels is in Singapore and is rocking Little India! I’ve been staying in the heart of Little India in The Prince of Wales Hostel, which is a great Ozzie backpacker bar with free breakfast, clean dorms, a black and white dog mascot (I’m a sucker for hostel pets) and live bands on most nights. Take a step outside the hostel at night and the contrast is unbelievable; you’ll see hundreds and thousands of Indian men buying gold jewellery, shopping on the market for anything from fresh groceries to suitcases and holding hands. It’s also a great place to stuff your stomach with cheap, local Indian food.

Once Upon A Ku De Ta Christmas

victoria — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:59:28 +0000

I must admit I’m known as a little bit of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas, but that was until I had my first Ku De Ta Christmas here in Bali, where the sun was shining, children were having their faces painted, eating candyfloss, sitting on Santa’s knee and catching bubbles (and so was I but don’t tell anyone).

Best of Bali Photos 2009

victoria — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:34:12 +0000

Bali Pre-Vantastic Video

victoria — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:02:13 +0000

After 6 months in Bali, Steve leaves the Vantastic road trip and Indonesia behind to go to Morocco. So let me introduce you to my new Vantastic partner, Trent, from Australia! Please get behind and watch Vantastic South Australia from 3rd Feb-20th March 2010!

Rip Curl Party On The Rooftop Bali

victoria — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:39:22 +0000

Imagine a cross between an office christmas party and a high school prom, and that’s pretty much what Rip Curl’s Party On the Rooftop 2009 was like! Free alcohol from 6pm, all the vodka red bull’s you ever need, and you can imagine the result…

How to Customize Your Twitter Background

victoria — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:24:06 +0000

Lately I took the plunge and customized my Twitter background. Twitter is not just another social networking site, it has become a useful business and marketing tool, particularly for travel bloggers.

Is Twitter worth it?

Many people who sign up for twitter either write one Tweet, don’t really get it and never Tweet again, or they become an avid Twitterer. It can be a little confusing and difficult to understand at first, but Twitter can be a really good way to network and get followers for your blog or website.

How do I get followers?

Start following people! Think about people you like or are interested in, whether it’s celebrities, other travel bloggers, people in your industry or your friends. Many websites now have a “follow me on twitter” page so follow the link and start following them! You can do keyword searches in the search box on the home page, so for instance if you are a travel writer living in Bali like me, you might do a search for ‘travel’ and ‘bali’. If people follow you, it is polite to follow back as sometimes people will stop following if they don’t feel you are reciprocating.

Write interesting tweets! Don’t just bombard people with links to your website or annoy people with hundreds of tweets all at once. Write about something exciting that you are doing, something humorous, or something that may start a debate or discussion. Asking questions on Twitter is always bound to get people talking.

Discover the @!

It took me a while to discover this and I didn’t even know how it worked! If you want to direct your tweet at someone in particular or respond to something they have said @ them! Either click the reply button or put @(username). People will see this and it will encourage more followers. And if you find someone else’s tweet interesting and think it’s worth of a mention Retweet it!

Twitter is all about getting involved in the conversation with the Twitter community, so the more involved you are, the more followers you will get. Join the conversation! Add a ‘follow me on twitter’ widget on your travel blog to encourage people to follow you too.

Put a # before a keyword in your post to join in a ‘trending topic’- a topic that’s popular and being talked about that day.

Creating a Custom Background

Customising your Twitter background allows you to maintain a professional appearance and also gives you the opportunity to market your brand, show off your design skills and include information that you can’t necessarily include in the small word count on your profile.

Create a custom document in Adobe Photoshop. Because Twitter has the tweet page down the middle, your Twitter followers are only going to see what is down the left and the right hand side. So you want to make sure your images and text fall in those areas.
Your document size should be something around 1283 pixels by 615 pixels, that’s what size mine was.
Allow yourself a width of around 240 pixels for everything you put in the left hand column.
Allow yourself around 270 pixels for everything you put in the right hand column.
Get creating!
Start with the background, do you want a gradient, solid colour, texture…?
Think about the information that you would like to display, for instance your contact details, what you do or your website address.
Perhaps you would like to include your company logo, a photo of yourself or if your business is in design you might want to create something completely new and show off your skills.
Save your pdf as a jpeg image and upload it to Twitter!

Keloid Scars since my Motorbike Accident

victoria — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:40:00 +0000

Since my motorbike accident here in Bali I’ve been left with Keloid and hypertrophic scars. We’re not sure quite why I got them, Keloid’s usually run in the family and are more commonly seen in people with darker skin. It could be because I got an infection as the skin was growing over, it could be because there was still dirt left in the wound, or it might be because the wound was just very deep in the epidermis.

I’ve been going through a course of cortisone steroid injections to try to flatten them and to reduce the redness, but so far I haven’t seen an improvement. Here in Bali it costs around 500,000 Rupiah per time to have all of my scars injected through the doctor and it’s around 100,000 Rupiah per vial of cortisone. I can only describe it as having about 20 bee stings injected under my skin, and sometimes the skin actually bursts, leaving these dark blood blisters. Nice. I’m supposed to have an injection every month for around 6 months to see an improvement, and I’ve had three now.

Anyhow I’m hoping when I get back to the UK I can get them removed and sorted out and have them looking slightly less unsightly! If anyone knows of any tricks or things I can do to help them look better I’m open to comments here! I’m thinking of visiting a traditional medicinal healer in Bali, so I’ll keep you posted on how that goes! I’ve heard of the onion extract cream Mederma, but don’t know if a cream can actually make any difference…