6 months anniversary!

The hostel has been opened for 6 months! I have made so many good friends in the hostel and so many good memories....I think it is the best decision I have made in my life.

I always ask myself: how come I always get nice and friendly guests in the hostel? After talking to ten thousand people and pondering over this question for a while, I think I know the answer. It is because of the amazing communal area! The communal area has guests lying down, reading a book, magazine, chatting, drinking, eating, watching movie....everything is in one area! Thus, everyone has to talk to each other. And when everybody is friends with everybody, the 'combined vibe' is amazing and infectious!

People talking and laughing with one another, and all 3 of them travel alone and became friends in the hostel!

Using my slimming machine while watching movie, when I am reading a magazine...

Another thing I realised is that our hostel always have super random events! Basically, not events that was planned for weeks, or not even days! Many of our events were created either on the day itself or the day before. Events....maybe it is more of an outing I must say. Outings that involve alcohol generally account for more than 80% of our outings!

Clubbing - Attica, Clarke Quay

This club is really nice! It has 2 levels: first level plays Pop and RnB music and the second floor is mostly house music. Crowd is very good and always have lots of fun. However, if you are here to meet locals, this club will not be the one for you. Most of the customers at this club are expatriates in Singapore who have money to burn. 

Clubbing in Attica, Clarke Quay (super random. think someone just wanted to club and the rest of us went along)

Good night though

Funny british boys! They are really young!

Clubbing - The Butter Factory, One Fullerton

We went to The Butter Factory as well. This club is really nice! I think the music is better than at Attica and the crowd is more diversed. We had so much fun there, and stupid Raffael (the german guy on the left in the picture below) keep taking drinks from other customers' table! Well, we had free drinks (since alcohol is so expensive in Singapore), but it was a bit embarrassing because the other customers actually realised and came to talk to us. Fun night though!

Group of us at Butter Factory!

Everyone having fun....good night!

Sometimes after a good night out, which usually involve tonnes of alcohol, some people are too tired to go up to their dormitory to sleep. Thus, seeing how comfortable my communal area is (as explained earlier), they decided to just crash on the platform. Which is usually a good idea, unless it is a night that everyone is out clubbing and coming back at different timings. Why?

Sometimes people will stack things on you

Generally, a fortress seems to be a popular choice!

Some outings is due to events that everyone celebrate, so we have to! An example is St Patrick's Day! 4 of my guests (canadians) have actually bought bus tickets to KL but because we are going out for St Patrick's day, they gave up their tickets and bought a new one the next day to join us! When I asked them the next day whether they have any regret? The answer was 'Not at all! It was a good night!'.

Late night chats are always good! However, when it gets late and we have been drinking of hours, we start taking weird pictures...

Like Mr Businessman over here!

What do we do when we are in the hostel, chatting, but really feel like going out but do not want to take a cab? We take a walk to a bar nearby and drink!

Sometimes it really seems like an excursion!

All ended well!

Usually after a night out of drinking, people get really really tired the next day. So what do we do? We can't walk around and explore the city while having a hangover....thus, we go to the beach together!

Lie around, do nothing, swim on the beach, get a tan....PERFECT!

Another thing that I did in this 6 months is that I went to KL and Melaka to talk to a few different hostel owners and to put my business cards and pamphlets there! The trip was good! All business in the afternoon, and relaxing at night! I met up with a few of my guests from Drop Inn, Singapore and went out for dinner and drinks together!

I love the girls!

At dinner

In conclusion, I think what I have learnt about my hostel in the past 6 months is that my hostel has basic facilities: 

1. clean bed

2. clean toilets

3. clean linens

4. free breakfast

5. free wifi

6. 2 public computers to share

7. DVDs to watch

But most important, it is the atmosphere that makes this place special! How you meet friends whom you keep for the rest of your life and gain valuable travel tips! It is the people who make this place special, so big thanks to all of you!!!!

Chinese New Year Celebration!

Chinese New Year falls on the 14 February this year, which coincidentally is also Valentine's day. Chinese New Year is one of the most celebrated festival in Singapore as more than 70% of the Singaporeans are chinese. Generally, we have public holidays for 2 days (only) while Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days.

Pity to those guests who arrive on 14 February and only stayed for 1 night as most places are closed on Chinese New Year, even the shopping malls! As a result, most of the guests stayed in my hostel playing cards, watching movies and ordered delivery for dinner.

The party for Chinese New Year in Singapore is on New Year's Eve in Chinatown. However, the feedback that I have gotten from my guests is that right after the countdown at 12 midnight, most of the people just went straight home. This is very different from most western countries as after the New Year's countdown, there is usually a huge party (or many huge parties) to attend. Some guests even saw Europeans staring at each other after all the locals had gone home, looking really bewildered and wondering where the party is.

This year, we held our celebration on 21 Feb (the 8th day of Chinese New Year). According to Wikipedia.org, the 8th day of Chinese New Year is the eve of the birth of the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor is the Taoist ruler of heaven and all realms of existence below including that of Man and Hell (again, explanation is obtained from Wikipedia.org). This is not the point though, the purpose of this entry is to show some pictures of our Chinese New Year celebration!

To celebration Chinese New Year, we bought 2 packets of Yu Sheng. Thanks for Esther who helped us to cut the carrots in order to save money as it is really expensive to buy from the supermarket! Yu Sheng is the Teochew style raw-fish salad. It consists of raw fish (salmon in our case) and shredded vegetables, with sauces and other condiments. It is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

When you add the different ingredients, you are supposed to say very specific New Year's greetings:

Step 1. When dish is placed on the table, say 'Gong Xi Fa Cai', 'Wan Shi Ru Yi' (Congratulation and may you be properous)
Step 2. While squeezing the lemon over the fish, say 'Da Ji Da Li' (Wishing you Good Luck and blessings)
Step 3. Place the fish over the shredded carrots and radish, say 'Nian Nian You Yu' (Wishing you abundance inwealth every year)
Step 4. While sprinkling Pepper over the dish, say 'Hong Yun Dang Tou' (May you have good luck at your doorstep)
Step 5. While sprinkling Cinnamon powder, say 'Qing Chun Chang Zu' (May you be young forever)
Step 6. While pouring the Peanut oil, say 'Rong Hua Fu Gui' (May you enjoy prosperity)
Step 7. While pouring Plum sauce, say 'Tian Tian Mi Mi' (May sweetness enters your life)
Step 8. While pouring the crackers, say 'Man Di Huang Jin' (May gold falls at our feet)
Step 9. While tossing the Yu Sheng, say 'Yue Lao Yue Qi, Lao Dao Feng Shen Shui Qi' (Toss higher and higher till the wind and the oceans rise up for a good year ahead)

My 2 part timers (Yi Quan and Davian) happily volunteered to lead everyone in saying these greetings! Many thanks for that.

Everyone listening intently to the explanation

Getting ready to start preparing the 'Yu Sheng'

Everyone watching at the preparation. Some looking pretty amused.

The final product after adding all the ingredients

Everyone joining in the tossing of the Yu Sheng!

A messy event indeed, but definitely a good one!

Joy of having a hostel

I referred 3 guests to The Hive a couple of days ago as my place does not have a private room available for them to extend their stay. This morning, when they left Singapore, they actually came over to my hostel and to thank me for the stay!

It is such a good feeling when you know that your guests enjoyed their stay with you! 

Being a fellow backpacker, I realised how important the accommodation is. If you are staying in a normal place, the joy of being in a foreign country only comes from sightseeing and exploring new places. If you are staying in a fantastic place, you can also experience joy from talking to people and it sort of makes the trip complete!

This is one of the core value of the hostel: to create a home away from home!

A great new year!

The hostel was up for 43 days in year 2009! So how have it been?

Let me just sum up the many first in 2009...

1. 1st day of opening

2. 1st customer (buying apple juice)
   

3. 1st staying guest

 

4. 1st hostelworld guest

5. 1st hostelbookers guest

6. 1st guy who uploaded his music in my netbook (first guy from the left)

   
7. 1st guests who picked the pictures to put in the room that they are staying in

8. 1st guest who helped me to write 'welcome' in his own language (Hebrew) on my wall

9. 1st month anniversary

                                                  

                                               

10. 1st guests who took pictures for me in my hostel

                                     

11. 1st present a guest had given me

                                     

12. 1st backpack requested by me to be given to the hostel (disclaimer: the guest was about to throw this away that is why I requested!)

                                                    

13. 1st christmas spent at the hostel

                                                    

I guess this is all before this entry starts getting boring. And you guys can possibly tell that I am just giving an excuse to upload pictures without much writing as I know I always prefer pictures to words!

It is a new year ahead, and I got a feeling that this will be a great year! Thank you guys for making the last 43 days of 2009 so amazing!

Happy New Year!

Updates after 10 days

My first customers (who bought an apple juice), Eric and Robyn, are back! They stayed for 3 nights in my twin room!

I think for the first 10 days, although business is slow, things have been moving on. Maybe it is because it is the peak season and so at least I will have customers everyday. However, I still do not have any reviews on the online platforms and it is tough as when people book through the different platforms, they actually read the reviews. When there are no reviews, there are not many bookings!

This leads to my customers being mostly referrals. I just got a referral from Takehito Matsumura. Thanks Take!

In the past 10 days, I have met very interesting people and a few of them are doing their round-the-world trip:

Matt and Leah (British couple) are the first guests to stay in my twin room! They are such sweet guests! Always so polite and considerate. Even when Leah wanted to exchange books in my little books exchange corner, she will bring to the counter to show me which book she want to exchange her book with! Before they left, they gave me their umbrellas for the hostel! So sweet!!!!

Laurent is a referral from Hauke (Timo's friend who is my first guest). A Belgium guy who is doing a 16 months round the world trip. He takes amazing photographs and very interesting videos! If you guys are interested, you can go to his website at http://voirlemonde.eu/. However, his website is in french, so you guys can go to http://www.translate.google.com/ and key in this website. The whole page will transform to the language of your choice! So amazing right? Laurent introduced me to this as well.

Bernard, an Australian man who take 3-6 months off every 2 years to travel. What he does is he accumulates his annual leave and take it at one go every 2 years!

Infas, a Sri Lankan guy who studied and worked in London. He stayed for 5 nights and I think he is one of my longest staying guest! We became such good friends that he will go with me to Mustafa Centre in the afternoon to have lunch and to buy things for the hostel! Thanks dude!

That is all about my guests for the past 10 days..............again again again.