Crossroads

Everyone has an ideal about love. My very first clear idea of love crystalized when I read Jin Yong's novel 'Shen Diao Xia Lu' (Legend of the Condor Heroes) when I was 13 years old. Moved by the relationship the characters had in the novel, I thought to myself; If I were to have a love it should be like this, pure and forever. If I found someone whom I love and love me back, nothing else in the world would matter to me anymore.

So I did not allow myself to fall in love, always afraid that the other person might not be 'the one'. But when I did, it was exactly like I imagined. I was 20 and I met Gene. She was three years older than me. We were together for four years and every single day was pure bliss.

So sure I was that she was the one, for everyday of the four years together, I felt we could get married tomorrow and it would not matter. Everyday felt like we just fell in love yesterday, and everyday felt like we could be in love for the rest of our lives. Everyday, even up till the day before we broke up.

Those four years were the happiest days of my life. Since then from early 2004 I have been carrying a burden of sadness. As they say the higher you climb, the harder you fall, I was very much disillusioned and lost. Although the rational mind tells me to be logical and realistic, but every single day I wake up feeling a pang of heartache; some days less, some days more.

Especially when I find myself falling in love again, or starting to have some feelings for someone else, I would feel a rush of pain. Falling in love was suppose to be the sweetest thing but instead of feeling good, I felt hurt.

And then I was afraid. Afraid of losing, afraid of the pain, afraid of falling in love again, afraid of the future even before the future comes.

Nice girls came and gone, but even there was a chance, I would not let it happen. I had one relationship after Gene, but unfortunately I did not allow myself to become the boyfriend that girl deserved.

In Buenos Aires I would fall in love again. But the latinas are a different breed, their concept of love is trying out first as friends who share physical intimacy. With regards to love, its not the kind of ideal that the asian culture shares, who demands a lot more commitment. This is of course generalizing. But at least, I faced this problem.

Combined with my already insecure state of mind, falling in love with an argentine girl would prove to be very difficult. It was very painful and there were many misunderstandings; lanuguage and cultural clashes. But at least I did not walk away; we stayed and talked things out.

My dear friend Jean 'Yoda' Michel talked a lot of sense. In one conversation that we had this words struck me, "It should be a no brainer at the stage you are right now. Just enjoy being together..."

In the end, wherever the current relationship goes, it has taught me something. I have finally let go. Let go trying to impose my ideal of love in every potential relationship, let go of the hurt. I did not really end my relationship properly with Gene, it left a scar. Untouched for three years, but lately, the old wound has been ripped painfully apart. But thank God this time it was allowed to heal beautifully.

Gene and I had something so pure and beautiful, I should be thankful that I had experienced that. The most amazing thought that struck me is that now I'm blessed with the knowledge and recognition if this kind of love ever comes to me again; I would be able to recognize and cherish it so much more. Meanwhile, just enjoy to the maximum with whoever and whatever I have.

It is one thing to reason things out and another thing to feel it for real. Three days has passed since I woke up feeling a wonderful lightness in my heart. The burden of my heart that I have been carrying for three years has finally been lifted; like big ball chains finally removed from a prisoner's ankles, my heart feels like its flying every moment. Thank God.

Start of the week but the portenos do not rest when it comes to dancing. For most of them it just means the start of a brand new week of dancing.

Sunday nights are complicated. It is a free day, but most people have to work the next day. After dancing fridays, saturdays most people want to continue that grooving momentum.

Nonetheless, it is still a very good dancing night.

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Best Place to Go: El Beso without a doubt. It is on Riobamba 416, a dimly lit, small salon with the dance floor about half the size of a tennis court. It is a 'singles' milonga. Dancers are seated such that along the perimeter of the sqaure dance floor, the ladies occupy two rows and the guys, the adjacent two rows. This facilitates the 'eye invitation' (cabeceo) between the the two gender.

Its one of the most popular place to go on the sunday night. Even tango dancers who are partners, sit apart so they can dance with other people.

The milonga, organized by Susana Plazaola, starts at 2300hrs. Just before the milonga, there is an intermeadiate and advance tango milongeuro class by Susana Miller. As such many students stay back to dance. The place has a good mix of old milongueros and young tango milonguero dancers.

Dancers: High level of dancing. That the old milongueros dance very well, goes without saying. Even the students of El Beso have quite a decent level.

The old milongueros like Dany, Tete, Cacho, Abel, Muma and Alicia Pons etc, frequent the place.

Floorcraft: No crazy and big figures. But from 12 midnight till 0130hrs, the floor could get crowded. Even so, the milonguero style of dancing ensures pretty much a safe and peaceful dancing experience.

Music: A relatively young deejay, decent music from the golden age of tango. No nuevo tango music. But sometimes the energy from the deejaying can be relatively flat.

What I Like Least: If you come after 2330hrs, and do not have reservations, it is almost impossible to find a seat. It is so popular and crowded. You will have to wait at the bar area together with a huge traffic of people. Some people like the energy of the bar, but not me. It is difficult to settle down and start the night peacefully when you are at the bar with the influx of the crowd.

Memories: I was approached by Irene from United States, she had been reading my blog about tango and singled me out at El beso, that was quite a surreal experience.

Also I had my first dance with Rosana at El Beso.

Other Nice Places: Porteno y Bailarin (Riobamba 345) which is just one street away from El Beso. In fact many dancers leave El Beso around 0230hrs and continue on to Porteno y Bailarin to dance till the wee hours of the morning.

What if, the very first love you had or you ever possessed a love that was so good and perfect, and try as you might, you realise you might never find something so wonderful again?

I stayed 10 days in the jungle without food and comfort; I learnt to appreciate the loveliness of a simple meal. I left Singapore, to see the outside world; I learnt to appreciate the beautiful things Singapore could give me.

But what about love? It seems to me that as I see more and more of relationships, experience and understand more about love, the more hopeless it seems to find something so pure again. It seems more difficult and the mediocre seems abound everywhere.

Where is ever after? Does it exist? So in the meantime before ever after? What does one do? Then it also seems to be wrong to be serious in love. The more you love someone the more likely you are to turn them off?

How about not to loving someone you are together with in a lesser degrees? Stop thinking too much for them? So that their actions would not break your heart too much? Then it comes to the question of worthiness. If you really love them shouldn't they be worthy of all your attention?

So lets say, you don't put in 100% and neither does the person you love put in 100%. Its suppose to be good? Its suppose to turnout better than if both of you put in 100%? Ok then we suppose one of the person does not want to put in 100% then wouldn't it be unfair for the other person that puts in 100%? Plus, on many occasions, the person who puts in 100% would then become so annoying to the other one because he/ she is doing too much.

So then we suppose true love is about two person putting in 100%. Then why do most people come together for a relationship if they don't want to put 100% from the start?

So at the end of it all, as we grow up and experience the passing of the purity of the first love, or a true love, it seems to me we do not move ahead and learn how to love the person we are with. But instead, we learn how not too love the person we are with.

At least not 100%.

When it comes to learning the dance, the contemporary tango dancer is faced with two big questions. Which teacher dances the best style and who teaches the best.

For the question of style, the main problem is that tango being a freeform and social dance, does not have a fixed and correct style. Everyone dances their own style.

Javier Rodriguez explained to me not so long ago, up till the early 1990s, there were not many tango schools. He just learnt the basic 8 steps from his dad, who was the former organizer of Club Sunderland and then just danced. The level of dancing was much higher than today and the tango community were very selective. He recounts one time when he first started out, an old milonguero (hardcore guy dancer) cornered him in the toilet and told him, "You will never learn how to dance tango!" Javier was terrified but he continued to dance. Slowly the old milongueros accepted his sincerity and Javier recalls the countless nights, many of them will stay back late when the milonga ends at 5am in the morning to demonstrate and teach him steps. The milongueras (hardcore lady dancers) who were excellent dancers would give him tips as he danced with them in the milongas. Javier told me, "They just wanted to weed out the trash so that only the people who really loves tango stays. But once you are accepted, they embrace you like their son."

So this was how the beginner dancers used to learn. By the passing of knowledge from the old guard. The schools were the milonga itself, private lessons were free and priceless, after the milonga.

Marite, Javier's good friend, and an excellent milonguera and teacher told me, "I had to sit and watch in El Beso for a year. Before the men were given the green light by the milongueras, to dance with me." Marite started tango more than 10 years ago, when the codes were still very strict. She and Javier explained to me, due to the military junta and the popularization of rock and roll and swing in the 70s, there was a lack of transmition of knowledge from the older generation. Javier Rodriguez, Andrea Misse, Geraldine Rojas and Marite were amongst the few younger generation who started tango when the last of the old guard like were still around. Learning the traditional tango essence from the very roots.

During early 2000s, there emerged two main schools of structured tango teaching, tango milongeuro by Cacho Dante and then popularized by Susana Miller; another one nuevo school; started by Fabian Salas, Pablo Veron, Gustavo Naviera and Chicho Frumboli. Since then tango as a teaching industry exploded and various styles and definitions started to appear.

The good thing is that people now have lots of choices, and tango as a dance would not die out as the older generation goes away. But the hard thing for the dancer then is to identify which school does he want to learn from.

I would leave the discussion of the merits of each style to another day. Also, there had not been any proper categorization of the terminology yet; its not like there was a Council of Buenos Aires for the canonization of the tango terms. But for discussion purposes lets generalize the tango schools to 1. Tango Salon, 2.Tango Milonguero, 3. Tango Nuevo.

Tango salon actually was the original term to describe social argentine tango. 'Salon' comes from the term dance salon; the floor where tango is danced. During the old times tango salon did not mean any particular style. It was just a general term to describe and differenciate social dancing and show tango (tango fantasy). At the dance salons, on the social dancefloor different milongueros dance their own styles and had their own favourite and distinct figures.

Nowadays, tango salon is used to describe the classic traditional tango with long steps and more expressive figures with the feet. The embrace is more loose and the dancers may open up to do more complex figures. Some of the characteristical salon figures are lapiz, enrosques and long smooth walks.

Tango milonguero are characterised by the close embrace, 'apilado' style, using figures such as ocho cortardo and short walks to play with the rhythm of the music. Apilado is spanish for piled up; because in that embrace the dancers look like they are leaning, piling up on each other by the chest. But actually the term 'milonguero' was coined by Cacho Dante and Susana Miller. Essentially tango milonguero was tango salon, just that this particular style was evident in the more crowded milongas in the center of Buenos Aires. Due to the crowded floor, the dancers had to huddle up in a tighter embrace and use shorter steps. But the point is, if one were to go 20 years back, there would not be tango milonguero, nuevo... etc. Only tango salon where some people hug tighter and some opened up the embrace during the dance.

Nowadays, tango milonguero is a very good starting point for learning the real essence of social tango because as the milongas of Buenos Aires are getting more and more crowded. This style lets you dance, navigate and express to the music even at the most crowded milongas. Also tango milonguero focus on expressing the music with simple, technically non demanding steps and communicating feelings with the body intimately. As such, the social essence of traditional tango is very clearly and rapidly conveyed to the students.

Tango nuevo (nuevo means 'new' in spanish) was a brainchild of Fabian Salas, Pablo Veron, Gustavo Naviera and Chicho Frumboli. They wanted to analysed the movement of tango, the leading and following part and came out with a very structured and logical way to explain tango.

Since then tango nuevo has evolved into a very movement based type of dance and technically demanding. The current schools added a lot of modern dance elements into it. Its characterized by a very elastic kind of energy between the two dancers with long big boleos and colgadas.

For my first few months here I tried many teachers. I experienced a bit of salon and nuevo style but I concentrated mainly on the milonguero style. After I met Javier in November 06, I began to dance a more salon style, some call it Villa Urquiza style. I shall share with you some of the good experiences I had with the following teachers.

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Tango Milonguero

Cacho Dante and Rosana Devesa (English speaking)

They are my principle teachers. Cacho have been dancing and teaching tango for a long time. He is a super fine milonguero and maestro. His students include Susana Miller, Ana Maria Schapira, etc. He is now teaching with Rosana. Rosana complements him perfectly because of her knowledge of body dynamics; she also teaches body meditation.

Their classes focus on the leading with body, musicality and navigation on the dancefloor. Cacho breaks down all the subtlety of the lead in a very logical manner, hence allowing his students to create their own way of dancing and their own way of expressing to the music.

Besides being very dedicated teachers, they are very warm and nice and their classes have a very warm family vibe.

Tete and Silvia (English speaking)

When you see Tete in motion you can feel the spirit and essence of tango; you can also feel his incredible internal energy and rhythm. The way he dances belies his age. Together with Cacho, Flaco Dany; Tete is one of the few old milongueros still around.

His classes is full of energy. Like a lot genius, he is eccentric and very passionate in his teaching; he would not hesitate to stare at you and give you a piece of his mind. Often, when he did not like what he saw in my dance, he would come near and exclaim, "Sin miedo! Mas cadencia!! Mas swing!!! (No fear! more groove!)."

Silvia helps translate and clarify some of the concepts Tete explains. She is very nice and also a deejay on Cannings monday nights.

I really feel that if one makes it all the way to Buenos Aires,  one should really take from age old milongueros such as him. You cannot find them anywhere else in the world. The represent all the things that made true tango what it is. Even if it is just to see him in action, hear his words, even if one cannot understand just yet, one day it will all make sense if you press on.

Susana Miller and Maria Plazaola (English speaking)

Susana Miller was the one who popularized 'tango milonguero'. Her class is popular and well attended. Together with Maria Plazaola, the former partner of Gavito, they teach the milonguero close embrace style.

Her class begins with individual techniques, then some double time walks, playing with the beat. Then she will teach a figure. It is a good place to learn new figures to express the music.

She is pays a lot of individual attention to the students and is very strict with her students, like all good teachers.

Ana Maria Schapira (English speaking)

Ana Maria Schapira used to teach together with Susana Miller. Later she would start her own school. She teaches in a similar way and similar concepts and techniques as Susana Miller. Also another good place to learn new figures to express the music.

She has a warm personality and is very patient to her students.

Jorge Firpo (English speaking)

Jorge teaches tango milonguero, tango salon and milonga. He is relatively young compared to the old milongueros. But he grew up in the milongas with his dad and then later on moved on to dancing stage tango, folklore and other classical dance professionally. As such he knows the essence of tango and is able to explain it clearly in terms with the aid of contemporary dance explanations.

He also gives a very good technique for men class which is essential for all who wishes to improve their dance.

Here are also some of the teachers who teach the milonguero style I took from, and enjoyed learning from them.

Gabriela Elias (English speaking, Milonga con traspie)
Muma (Milonga con traspie)
El Pibe Sarandi (Milonga con traspie)

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Tango Salon

Javier Rodriguez and Andrea Misse (English speaking)

To me he is the best dancer in the world. With the elegance of classic tango, the incredible speed in his feet, the way he listens to music, his understanding of the very core of the philosophy of tango, the way he allows the lady to have her own say in the dance and making them look beautiful and his ability to transmit so much energy into the dance yet remain as calm as still water. Together with Andrea Misse, they are breathtaking to watch.

As a teacher he is colourful, animated, and flamboyant; his classes are full of energy. He told me, "If I were to explain, lift your chest up, pull down your shoulder blades and tightened your abs muscles. The students will have a hard time getting it. As compared to saying, put out your tits as if you are walking down a nude beach with your new breast implants. The ladies will get it immediately." With the deep respect he has for tango, he transmit his knowledge with all his passion and tries to teach the students the way he thinks tango deserves.

Andrea Misse translates whatever Javier says into english. She often turns deep red when Javier asked her to translate exactly what he says. She dances beautifully, has impeccable technique and most importantly, is her amazing speed with fluidity. Their partnership is relatively new, less than 2 years and everytime I see them dance, Andrea gets more and more expressive. The last time I saw them dance at El Beso I could almost hear them talking and laughing with their feet.

She is beautiful and warm and gives a lot of individual attention to the students. She is very approachable and explains to the students in a very clear and concise manner.

They travel around the world and are in high demand. It is very hard to get to them but I had all the luck in the world to be in Buenos Aires learning from them in the few months they are back in their homeland.

El Flaco Dany

Dany is one of the best milonga dancers in the world in my opinion. Matched only by Javier. He is elegant and has amazing speed.

Teaching wise he is a very dedicated teacher. He really gives you a lot of attention if you are struggling. I have seen him spend half an hour on a couple. It feels to me like he takes it personally to make sure you know what he taught.

You have to understand spanish to get the maximum out of him. But nonetheless he's class is one of those where you have to try just because he is so good at how he dances and he is essentially; tango.

Julio Balmaceda and Corina De La Rosa (English speaking)

World famous dancers. They are amazing to watch dancing vals, due to the power and smoothness in their 'giros' (turns). Julio and Corina has amazing energy in classes, their classes are fun and they always have beautiful and amazing figures to teach. Usually their classes have an more than 30 people.

They dance a style of tango salon, with a little bit mix of nuevo elements.

Here are some other teachers of tango salon style which I had good experiences learning from.

Gabriel Misse and Alejandra Martinan (Stage, salon; english speaking)
Fernando Galera and Vilma Vega (Salon, english speaking)
Jorge Dispari and Maria La Turca (Salon, Villa Urquiza style)
Gustavo Chidichimon (Milonga con traspie)
Andres Laza Moreno 'Bichy' (Salon, Villa Urquiza style)

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Tango Nuevo

Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne (English speaking)

Probably no one teaches the original tango nuevo as well as Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne. I took some of their classes and they have broken the lead of tango into very clear and logical elements. He also explains very well the elements of the music.

I've seen them dance. To me their tango is danced with the 'nuevo' concepts, but retains the feeling of the classic salon. That is what I like about them as compared to other tango nuevo dancers.

Honestly my knowledge of tango nuevo is very limited. But I would strongly recommend any nuevo enthusiasts to learn nuevo from the originator himself.

The other two main tango nuevo schools in Buenos Aires are DNI Studios and Tango Brujo.

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Conclusion

Cacho Dante summed it up very nicely when I once asked him what was the true essence of tango. He replied, "Dancing for the lady, dancing to the music and dancing with the other people surrounding you on the dance floor." I think whichever style you prefer, in the end if your aim is to learn the true essence of social tango then you have to ask yourself these questions;

Is the dance that you are learning, a dance where your partners feels comfortable and connected when he or she dances with you? Can you express the tango music with your dance, I'm not talking about electronic tango; rather the traditional tango music that comes from such a long time ago? Are you learning to dance in such a way that you are in harmony with the dancers dancing in front of you, behind you and around you; they are not dancing with fear that you would crash into them anytime?

If you are in Buenos Aires, in the roots of tango, then look for the roots, stick yourself amongst them. Learn from the roots and experience what true tango is all about; not just a series of body movements; but a whole lifestyle philosphy.

Before going into describing the teachers, I want to write a bit about the lodging available in Buenos Aires.

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Budget Traveller: For the first three months I stayed in the Alkimista Hostel
( www.alkimistahostel.com ). It cost me about USD10 per night for sharing a six person room.

Halfway through my stay, I felt I needed my own space so I moved to a single room that would cost me USD20 per night. After much haggling and promises of long term stay. The very nice lady boss of the hostel gave my the single room at a monthly rent of USD200.

The tango traveller might save a bunch with a budget hostels such as this. There are cheaper options in the San Telmo area. It could go as low as USD5 for shared rooms. But San Telmo area is generally very rugged, full of tourist and bohemian flair; basically a hotbed for pickpocketers, robbers and other undesirables.

There are loads of hostels in the others neighborhoods (barrios) that are in the more central areas, for example Congresso, Microcentro. The neighbourhoods are cleaner, safer but a little more expensive.

Long Term Traveller: After three months in the hostel, I was forced to move due to the rising prices. It was a blessing in disguise because I found an studio apartment
( www.castilloargentina.com.ar ) which cost USD350 per month near the less shady part of San Telmo. Sharing the apartment Antra, a latvian girl I met from the hostel, made the rent very affordable. I was paying less and having an apartment, complete with TV, internet, all by myself.

So for the travellers that would be in Buenos Aires for a month or more, it makes sense to rent an apartment. My advise is if you do not wish to pay USD400 for an apartment all by yourself, then find someone whom you get along well with and share the apartment together.

Tango Tourists: Most tango tourist who come to Buenos Aires, they want to be immersed fully into the culture. Tango guesthouses offer them just that. It is essentially like a hostel, but instead of backpackers you have fellow tango enthusias from all around the world. Most tango guesthouse have their live in teachers, free dancefloor to practise and customized tango tours to milongas and classes.

Depending on the price you pay, the quality of the tango guesthouses varies too; from a simple room with a spartan bed, to beautifully furnished bedrooms. You can be sure to pay more than a normal hostel, but the cheaper ones cost less than a rented apartment.

Of course, everything comes with a price, but if you are willing to spend, this is really a good option for tango tourist to come and hangout with the exclusive social network of Buenos Aires tangueros. Often the owner of these tango guesthouse are long time dancers themselves, they can fit you right in to the who's who of Buenos Aires milongas.

A good place I would recommend is the place of La Vikinga Helen ( www.hhcultura.com ). She and her partner Miguel Romero are the organizers of Bien Pulenta, one of the trendy saturday night milonga. She also owns a beautiful, cosy guesthouse near the Congresso area.

Another one which I almost stayed in, was Tango Hogar( www.tangohogar.com.ar ). The nice lady offered me USD300 for a really cosy single room if I stayed for three months or more.

Luxury Tourist: For the people who could afford hotels, I guess a quick internet search would list down the hotels available.

Buenos Aires really have some top class hotels near the Centro, Recoleta and Puerto Madero. But hey, if you could afford those places, you are probably doing very well on your own.

In the ancient chinese mythical story of "Journey to the West", Xuan Zhang, Sun Wu Kong (monkey god) and his fellow disciples made a westward journey from China to India to search for buddist scriptures. I would make a similar trip to the west some 3000 years later; just that I'm not a buddist monk, neither am I searching for scriptures. I'm just a guy born in the year of the monkey, in search for tango in its birthplace, Buenos Aires.

I finally got out of army on the 31st of July 06. And 15 days later, on the 15th of August, just after touching down Singapore from my last overseas army trip to Taiwan, my journey to the west begun.

The direct geographic between Singapore and Buenos Aires, Argentina is exactly 15,920km
( www.indo.com/distance/index.html ). The Malaysian Airline one year return ticket which cost me SGD2,500 ( www.misatravel.com ) would take me first, from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, then to Johannesburg, Cape Town South, then finally Buenos Aires. Total flight time would be about 30 hours.

My first month in Buenos Aires was orientated by Royce and Jean Michel, whom were here for holidays. From ordering food to how to take a cab, they showed me how to navigate in this city where I was essentially just a little better than a mute.

The early days when I do not speak spanish, I remembered the awkward moments during milonga, where people chat up a bit during the start of every tango. I would stand in front of the disinterested silent lady to whom I try to communicate with my best Marcel Marceau imitation.

And the early days were chaos. I was being greedy and tried to cramp at least three group classes everyday and milonga everynight. I was struggling with my tango, during the classes and milongas. The weird milongas, bad teachers, and feeling unconfident about my tango everytime I go for classes.

As someone who only learnt close embrace tango and have no idea who are the good teachers in Buenos Aires, Royce advised me to get my hand on some of the tango magazines and pamphlets handed out during milonga, to scout for the teachers.

So the first thing one should do when touching down Buenos Aires is to get your hands on a tango magazines. The three main tango magazines are 'El Tangauta' ( www.eltangauta.com ), 'La Milonga' and 'B.A. Tango Magazine'

Armed with these magazines, scouring through the hundreds of advertisements, I chose a list of teachers that I heard about, sounded good, took pictures with good poses or taught milonguero close embrace. And I filled up my days running around for classes. Within 2 months, I would have taken classes fom over 30 different teachers.

One thing I had difficulty adjusting to was the inpunctuality and unpredictability of the tango classes. Coming from a clockwork society and a clockwork work environment; Singapore and Singaporean Army. There were many times I arrived at a 8.30pm class finding myself the only there, and the teachers with the rest of the students showing up 15 minutes later. But soon, I got so used to it that even cancellations on arrival did not bother me anymore, do it the argentine way, always have a backup plan.

Another way to find who is teaching where is to go for milongas and pick up the pamphlets laid on the table. They are usually contain the most up to date information and the most interesting teachers. Most of the times, famous teachers travel around the world. They come back to Buenos Aires, their home for a few months. While they are here, they give ad-hoc classes and instead of advertising in magazines, they put it up on the pamphlets and distribute them at the main milongas.

Tango being more of an art than science, every teacher has a different demand. Soon I found that it was impossible to incoporate what every teacher wants. Also not all the teachers suit my taste or taught the kind of tango I imagine myself dancing.

I started out with 30 over teachers and today, I only take from two. Cacho Dante and Javier Rodriguez. Next up, I shall talk a bit about my experience with the different teachers.

In May 2005, Tango Singapore ( www.tangosingapore.com ), then the only argentine tango association in Singapore organized their one and only 'Singapore Tango Festival'.

I've always love body arts, having done chinese martial arts, gymnastics, jazz and ballet. Then, fresh from a new breakup with my ex-girlfriend, and wanting to learn a partner dance; My goodfriend Xiao Feng told me about this new dance called 'Argentine Tango' and the festival, she asked me to come along as her dance partner.

"So do I need a rose?" thinking back, I realised its the one of the lamest Argentine Tango joke, now that I hear so many people ask. "Well no, its not ballroom tango!" Xiao Feng explained.

So with Xiao Feng, I got my first taste of tango. It was at Bobby Rubinos, a cosy restaurant pub at Chijmes, Singapore. They were having a special milonga that night as part of the Singapore Tango Festival. I was quite impressed by the dance, the flashy kicks and twists. But the image that struck me the most was a the lady and gentleman, locked in an embrace and moving to the music; the face of the lady was a picture of perfect serenity.

Over the next few days I would attend the intensive lessons given by the teachers of the festival. The teachers invited for that festival were Esteban and Evelyn ( www.eyetango.net ). At my first lesson, I was laughing in my mind, "Thats just walking, nothing compared to all the technically demanding jazz or ballet figures."

But I was so wrong. Just walking to the beat is easy enough. But trying to walk when there is someone in front of you and leading her to walk without stepping on her is so difficult. At the end of the class, I was so frustrated I took off my shoes so Xiao Feng's feet would not be destroyed by my constant stepping.

There was one moment in the class, I was so frustrated with the inability to walk properly with Xiao Feng I asked the teacher what can I do. Evelyn told me, "Just walk into her with all your heart."

As a person who likes a challenge, I decided to conquer this deceptively simple dance. The free form, non-choreographed dance was also very interesting to me because I had been dancing hip hop, jazz and ballet choreographies for so long.

But due to my work commitments in the Singapore Army I did not get serious with tango till I started with Royce and Jean Michel in August 05. At that time, Singapore had three main group of teachers, Royce and Jean Michel were one of them ( www.loksze.com ). I had taken some classes from the other two groups and I figured I was pretty good already with Argentine Tango.

Once again, I would be proven wrong when I begun Royce and Jean Michel's classes. For the first time, the concept of 'marking', the lead of tango was explained to me. I had to re-learn how to walk, how to lead the lady to walk, how to lead the lady to pivot.

The turning point of my tango career would come in November 05. Having just completing the special operation forces(SOF) selection, I had achieved the dream which I wanted since I joined the army in 1999. I was very tired and decided to take a one month break from army to travel. I also had tango in mind and at that time I wanted to check out if the region had any good tango teachers. There was this german guy in Thailand, and then there were Daniel and Stacey from Taiwan, etc. So I thought I would travel to one of these places and take intensive private lessons.

Then a strange thought entered my mind; I remember talking to Royce one day after a practica. And she talked animatedly about the experience she had, dancing and learning with Carlos Gavito
( www.carlosgavito.tangoafficionado.com ). Royce said Gavito had such a gentlemanly and magnetic charisma around him, that one look from him would melt any woman's heart. And it was not just Gavito, they have taken from many maestros from Buenos Aires as well; I realised Royce and Jean Michel had so much knowledge of tango between them. Why should I go to an unknown place and take lessons from an unknown teacher just because he has a caucasian or latin sounding name?

So I stayed in Singapore and from early December 05 onwards till late March 06 I took tango private lessons from the couple. Two hours per session, two to three times per week. At the beginning of the first lesson, Royce and Jean Michel asked me what are my aims for tango. I replied, "To be able to dance a good high level social tango in any milongas around the world; including Buenos Aires."

At that time I got to know Bel, she helped me a lot with my tango journey. A typical week would consist of 2 nights of private lessons, 1 night of practica ( www.ixidanza.com ), 1 night of milonga and 2 nights of private practise with Bel in a rented dance salon.

My tango progressed rapidly, and come April 06, Royce and Jean Michel announced that they would be leaving Singapore for Tokyo because Jean Michel had been posted to Tokyo by his company. At that time I went through a mini crisis with my job. After getting the SOF posting I've always wanted, I had to wait for a few months doing regular army work in Officer Cadet School (OCS) as a trainer, before I join the best of the best for SOF training. It was then I had an insight that I cannot continue to be in the army doing the same things, climbing the same mountains and walking through the same jungles year after year, till I am fourty five years old. I want to see the world and continue my intellectual discoveries; right now, when I am still relatively young.

The exit of the best tango teachers in Singapore, my career turnaround, my thirst for seeing the world and my love for tango. These various factors would result in me handing in my resignation letter to the army in late April 06, giving up a career with SOF, concluding in a completely different direction of my life; To head to Buenos Aires to learn tango from the best of the best and continue my university studies in spanish.

For years the asian culture has taught us to choose a career, stick to it and then become the best one can be in that area, even though one might not like what he is doing after awhile. I had much difficulty with this, firstly, being very fickle minded and secondly feeling that I can become very good at anything I put my heart to do, so why must it just be only one? And as I made this decision I remember what the wise Jean Michel said, "Follow your heart and passion you will achieve your best in whichever you desire so much. But whoever said one must only do one single thing for the rest of his life? When the passion is gone, its time to move on."

We came back Kathmandu for the last night. Said our goodbyes to Dharma and family, the beautiful Nepal mountains and colourful Kathmandu city. The Nepal skyline, lined by the jagged mountain ranges were eventually replaced by the geometrical skyline of the metropolitan Singapore.

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29/03/06 2220hrs
Mt Annapurna Guest House:
Dinner at Dharma's, how to say no to more rice? We stuffed ourselves with so much rice, beans and rice and starch and carbs....
Dharma's sister-in-law is very cute.
Dharma mom's had corns on her hands, which would take a bottle of corn remover that costs SGD5 and 2 weeks of self treatment to heal completely. But instead in Kathmandu due to the lack of public information or education, she needs 5000 rupees for seeing doctor and had been plague with the corn for half a year.

30/03/06 1752hrs
Mt Annapurna Guest House:
Nicholas fell sick, due to overeating of dal bhaat & beer.

Been thinking, should we, in consideration of others' feelings, make decisions that make ourselves unhappy?

No. Just look at Royce; so honest & direct, yet lovable. But it also helps to be nice. So we should always be brutally honest to ourselves and politely honest to the ones we care about.

I've understood what I desire in this world... Freedom.
I'm a selfish person, yet, I have one deep love to give. I won't be giving it so readily again. It was hard for me to give it the first time, will be much harder.

Till then, its all about me. The dreams I pursue in life used to be finding my boundaries; mental & physical. Its evolved to obtaining freedom, physical freedom, intellectual freedom, freedom to break limits. Freedom to achieve whatever I want in life.

In a sense it hasn't changed. Boundaries defines me. I've found, or at least glimpsed, at my limits during the last 26 years of my life. They are puny & breakable. Hence, freedom, is just a step further; breaking these boundaries.

Will conquer Everest & the deepest ocean one day... I've stared at my mental limits right in the face during the SOF selection & came out the stronger of the two. The amazing thing is my mental limit got harder to break as I conquered it. It is waiting for me in the future, & we'll meet again I'm sure. At least for now, I've achieved mental freedom; the mental state of knowing I have the determination component of achieving whatever I want in life. Next in line, my intellectual limits.

30/03/06 2343hrs
Tribhuvan International Airport:
On Royal Nepal Airlines plane now, waiting to takeoff. I don't miss Kathmandu, but the mountains will always have a special place in my heart.
Nicholas still very sick, did his shopping for him.
I also ate too much dal bhat.
Stepped on cow dung, had to clean it off with my hands.
Dharma, super naggy as usual... Will miss him. He married a smart wife.
I like my beads, supposedly worn by Shardu.
Numerous security checks, shows lack of confidence in their system?
Many Nepali men seeking their future in Malaysia & Singapore; something I'll be doing in Argentina in 4 months time... How would we fare?
Got bumped up into business class due to computer error. Yay!

4 hours to Singapore... What's next? Work? Savings? Dance? Spanish? Continue to improve my physical prowess in relation to dancing & start preparing for pursuit of intellectual freedom.

Body check, forgot that women suppose to check women; lined up in the women line.

Biggest take away, the grit of the mountain nepali youth & the freedom to build our own future our society has given us relative to Nepal... DO NOT WASTE IT!!!

31/03/06 0726hrs
KL International Airport:
Waiting for transit. Don't feel too well.
Bumped back to economy class... Good times don't last haha!! But it was as good as it got.
Singapore baby! Here I come!!

We took a one day break in Kathmandu and then, when hearing the news that the fighting between the government and the maoist had momentarily came to a truce, we took the next day's bus to the beautiful Pokhara.

*Once again, pictures courteousy of the excellent Nick.
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26/03/06 1940hrs
Mt Annapurna Guest House:
Finished a lousy massage that costed about $30 for 40 mins of work... hag kept offering hand job... Felt slightly cheated.
Dharma slightly naggy over money, but he truly helped us save a lot.
I've overspent my budget... Shit, need to survive 10 days in debt... Damn... Why does it have to come to this everytime?

26/03/06 2307hrs
Mt Annapurna Guest House:
Finished watching Man Utd match, 3-0 vs Birmingham. Saw prostitutes & drug peddlers along the streets late at night... Every city has her destitutes.

27/03/06 0921hrs
Small coffee house en route to Pokara (Baikunthapuri):
Started journey at 0700hrs sharp. Outstanding bus ride in a tourist bus compared to yesterday. But miss the local flavor.
Outside Kathmandu, one can see the maoist signature & rule clearly; art, slogan, vehicles etc... very strong communistic China, the art emphasizing on the power of the workers, community etc..

28/03/06 0822hrs
Fishtail Villa, Pokara:
Super nice 3 star chalet type hotel.
Chatted up one cute north indian looking store lady last night; could have picked her up.
Went for a run this morning.
Tourist area in Pokara very developed, ala Phuket. Not messy like Thamel; even Pokara feels more properly planned than Kathmandu. Definitely more idyllic. Superb lake & mountain view.

28/03/06 1145hrs
Fishtail Villa, Pokara:
Just finished visiting Tibetan refugee camp, cave & Devi's waterfalls..
It felt slightly like a little homecoming for Nick, with his baldhead and very tan skin. The fellow monks were staring at him, probably thinking if he was a runaway rogue monk.
What's the real history between China & Tibet? Must investigate.
Slightly disappointed with these boring places.
Got some gifts for mom and sis. Maybe scammed by old nanny who was selling the pendant. She said she needed a good Singapore pen for her son. I pitied her & didn't really haggle with her for the price.
Going cycling in the afternoon. Feel tired.

28/03/06 2004hrs
Fishtail Villa:
Nice view around authentic Pokara by cycling.
Bicycle broke down, met a nice lady who helped me with bike; Invited me in for a drink.
Lost our way a bit. Generally locals quite helpful.
Didn't join in for boat ride. Did exercise in room instead.
Nepalese are animated gamblers. Hotel owner very animated too, like Jimbal.
They say I look jap/ korean; Nick look nepalese/ Tibetan.
One Jap guy got lucky & picked up a single jap gal.
General decline of tourism.

29/03/06 0706hrs
Pokara Tourist Bus Park:
Missed Eve suddenly last night. I think she might be the a very good girlfriend. An amazing lady who grew up in the jungles of Indonesia and travelled far and wide. Will ask her out...
Waiting for the bus to go back to Kathmandu. Will definitely be back again.

From the third day 3 onwards we took a climb up the mountains. It would be a week later till we see Kathmandu again.

*Pictures courteousy of the brilliant Nick
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19/03/06 1057hrs
Kathmandu View Restaurant:
Poka didn't happen despite high hopes. Took a 40minutes taxi ride to the Langtang mountain ranges instead.

We started the climb at Sundari-jal(river). Steep steps climb for about 1 plus hours. Quite shag... Almost like the Temburong jungles I had climbed countless times during army training.

Superb view at respite, where we met the mountain locals for the first time.

Played 'Black Eye Peas' to the locals, wonders of technology, an ipod and a portable speaker. They were the closest I can find to the groove of nepali music.

19/03/06 1721hrs
Dhorge Lakpa, a guesthouse in Chisopani (2194m):
Did magic for an old man; some 'ramri ketis' (cute gals) along the way.
Nic shag out twice along the walk. Walked for at least 3 hours. Thin air got into us; we started discussing jap porn with guide.
Chisopani is a nice little ridgeline village with about 5 guest houses.
Single white female backpacker swamped by 4 nepali guys... Fresh meat up in the mountains.
The one thing that no where else can offer me whilst sitting on the tall mountain sipping mango juice, looking down into the deep valleys; untouchable sense of peace.

20/03/06 1143hrs
Chipling Gosaikund View Lodge:
Super shag climb from Chisopani. Lunch break at peaceful village lodge along ridgeline.
Discussed different nationality gals with Dharma.

20/03/06 2012hrs
Gosaikund lodge in Gul Bhanjang:
Takes 4 days to travel to Kathmandu to buy food and amenities. Compare to Singapore situation, where the nearest 7-11 is right across the street??
Played soccer with village kids; they like taking pictures and magic.

Stars are great tonight.

Nice family with husky voiced daughter.

Simple life and existence; why do I ask for so much?

Names: Dawalama, Norki, Pasang, Diki, Sange, Ramanandshah (English Teacher)

21/03/06 1043hrs
Kutumsang Lodge:
2 plus hour trek from Gul Bhanjang. Dilemma: do we press on to Magingoat?
Talked to Dharma about local gals, relationships and sex, apparently they don't go down on each other in Nepal, what a waste!
Looking at Pasang, smart young lad, wants to be good in science. "Why do you want to study science?" I asked Pasang. "Because I want to help improve the life of the village." Damn.

Will he be happy in the village? Who's happier? Them or us?
Everyday children walk 2 hours up and down slope to school and back.

Dharma taught me a nepali song....

Sunna Sunna hey! maichiao x 2 (listen! young man)
Maichiao le ajar chyabancha... (young man what are you saying?)

21/03/06 1808hrs
Magin-goth Lodge:
Shag climb up from kutumsang. Nic shag out, mental left.
Encountered snow, super cold. Met jap guy who was traveling in Nepal for 3 months
Nice cosy little lodge, but toilet far. Will try to pee in bottle tonight..
Froze my ass trying to shit.

22/03/06 0804hrs
Magin-goth Lodge 3200m:
Shivalingham.
Turtleneck helped with breathing at night.
Next up Tharlepati!

22/03/06 1005hrs
Snowball Yay!
Thank God for sis's jacket.
Standing on the top of the world, walking amongst clouds.

22/03/06 1235hrs
Somcho Lodge:
Reach Thalepati. resting for the night. Highest point we'll ever go for this trip (3800m). Photo point. Got more than I wanted, trekking in the snow, steep climbs and all.
I still love and miss Gene.
Don't like to be baby-ed by guide.
From able to see everything under our feet, great contoured line hills. To walking in the mist of clouds, snowy peaks looming ahead barely visible.
Would I walk this path again?

22/03/06 1951
Somcho Lodge:
Snow is coming through the ceiling of our dining hall as we eat.

23/03/06 1426
Melamchigan near top monastery:
Quarreled with Nick.
Nice warm place.
Kids took me to monastery.
Love the view & serenity.
Am I really proud?
First place with electricity.
Played soccer with kids.
Descended 1000m within the afternoon.
Cable car good for nepal?
Going up to Tharkeyagan tomorrow.
Helped small kid dress his wound.

24/03/06 0626hrs
Wild View Lodge,.Melamcnigoan:
Had a dream about SOF training last night, I did not join in and was taunted from tne trainees. Felt so bad.
Had chicken curry for dinner yesterday. Small gal was crying when we killed the chicken haha. Was alright after we gave her sweets.
90% Charge for my O2 PDA.
Time slows to a standstill in this village. The question of having an aim in life resurfaces. Yes one doesn't need to do something forever, but how about the people here in the village? Don't they do the same thing till they die? Do they have an aim then? However short our dream/ aim, there should be one; and we must pursue it with all our vitality.

24/03/06 1334hrs
Small lodge on the way to Timbu:
Decided to skip Tharkegyan (2600m), due to tiredness and similarities between Tharke & Melamchie; onwards to Timbu (1600m) instead.
Unexpected tough winding road filled with rocks & meandering.
Super shag, thighs sore... Used some mental strength for the first time.
Guide not providing accurate timings.
Nepal offered a different view this time. Numerous waterfalls streaming down the green mountain face.
Nick & I ok now. That's what friends are for.
Supposedly 1 hr away from Timbu.
Still love Gene very much... Why?
Carried small gal (7-8 yrs old?) load (dry leaves) nepalese style... Amazing strength...
Walked a total of 5hrs..
Nepali like to make a loud growl when eating.

24/03/06 1617hrs
Small lodge in Timbu:
Finally reach Timbu!! Super wasted. So tired... Maybe I should give 'B' a shot?
Miss tango...don't mind going back Singapore early to dance.
Nepali teenagers say I look 18. Haha. Having said that, Nepali kids have very weathered hands, like 50 year olds.

25/03/06 0710
Small lodge in Timbu:
Bro's birthday, miss him. Slept late but well yesterday.
Stomach didn't feel well didn't eat a lot.
Thought of getting back together with Gene; why didn't I hold her more when we slept together?
Things you thought of doing with your future galfriend; singing her a love song, dancing with her in the summer rain... Never happens...

25/03/06 1128hrs
Somewhere along Kewl & Chanhawtae:
Talked to Nepali Phd, Civil engineer consultant. Understood more of Nepal's political woes. King is the problem.
Conspiracy theory for prince's massacre.
Gave old man panadol for fever.
Gave small girl panadol for fractured arm.
Lots of maoist signature; banners & signboards, ala communist China.

25/03/06 1818hrs
Chanhautae Sherpa Lodge:
Played with super cute puppy.
Swam in the river.
Saw Maoist but no contact.
Dharma's obsession witn the card game 'goal'.

26/03/06 0636hrs
Chanhautae Sherpa Lodge:
Fully charged all my devices; eletricity & other resources precious here; rationing common, not available 24hrs.

26/03/06 1030hrs
Bus back to Kathmandu:
Chanced on a bus back to Kathmandu while walking to Thalamarang. Changed our minds & decided to head straight to Kathmandu with a hope to go Pokara.
Super crammed bus. Worse than the military C130 to Brunei.
Very desolate families relative to Melamchie-gan, despite closer to the city...why?

On our very colourful and crammed local bus; Nick and I called it 'Mother of bus rides', there were nipple slips, puking old grannies, & pissing cows.
I realised the best thing I got out of the journey, was the company of Nicholas.
Nepalese clothes are very colourful.

26/03/06 1535hrs
Mt Annapurna Guest House:
Back at room, terror bus ride...do not sit in front of a nepali bus again... the nepalis love to cramp infront of the bus. Its like a mini free for all at the front, next to the driver seat. At a point of time our 2 seater front seat had 4 person squeezing, Nick had his backpack on him, and a sleeping baby on top of his backpack. There were many army checkpoints...and my ears are still ringing from the repetitive nepalese music.Well at least I had the... Cute bucked toothed gal
to stare at... Could be much worse.

At the time when Nick and I were at Nepal (early april 2006). The country was in the throes of a civil war. The troubles began in early June 2001, the royal family of Nepal suffered a terrble tragedy when the prince apparently massacared the entire royal family members. The successive king, King Gyanendra, who took over, was extremely unpopular and his government was blighted by corruption. The rouge communist group, called 'The Maoist', began to gain the support of masses and the tension between the ruling party, The Maoist and the citizens of Nepal escalated into the civil war at the time when we were present. The civil war would come to an truce in mid 2006 after King Gyanendra announced that he would step down in the future.

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Day 2: Kathmandu 180306

It was a chilly morning. I always liked the feeling of blowing into the chilly air, looking my breath condense into smoke.

Dharma, Nick and me set off in high spirits for our bus trip to Pokhara, a town that is about 6 hour bus ride from Kathmandu.

On the bus enroute to Pokhara, we saw a cute wide eye nepalese teen selling crackers. The women of Nepal are beautiful, very much like their 'Ms Universe winning' north indian counterparts.

The bus came to halt, a pit stop to pee by the roadside, army style. But it turned to an hour long halt. In the end the bus had to turn back due to maoist rebels fighting just outside of kathmandu valley. Kathmandu was under siege; the maoist rebels had choked up all the major inroads to the capital. No one was allowed to come in or out of the capital.

So we went back to our hostel but we did not want to give up going to Pokhara. Decided to try to take the same tourist bus to Pokhara the next day and hope the fighting would ease up. Although the outskirts of the capital was blighted by fighting, the capital itself was pretty peaceful. So, for the rest of the day though, we decided to take a tour around Kathmandu city.

In the early afternoon, we went to the 'Monkey Temple'. It is a buddist temple in a country where 90% of the inhabitants are hindus or buddist. Even amongst the two religion, the lines are pretty undefined because of their similarities and the nepalese culture had integrated them somewhat.

Nick and I was pestered by noisy kids to take pictures. I think the digital camera technology fascinated them quite a bit.

Next we visited the Pashupati Nath Temple. It is the grandest hindu temple in Nepal and not only it feels like a religious site, it feels like a weekend hangout place for the nepalese. We saw lovers and friends chilling out under the shady trees of the big temple, Shardus (hindu holy men) meditating and best of all, an odd spectacle; public cremation of people of high social status or holy men.

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is grossly under developed. Like rural china 20 years ago. Mud tracks and roads. But the citizens are happy and peaceful. They experienced 5 hrs of electricity rationing daily since beginning of the year due to poor rainfall, affecting hydro power. And at the time of writing, fluctuating prices of food and water due to the civil war; fresh products are sometimes prevented from coming into the city due to the maoist sabotaging the land trade routes.

At night, Dharma invited us to his house for dinner. We took local bus transport to Dharma's house. Automation has not arrived in this country yet. The tickets were brought by negotiating with a guy standing at the door of the bus.

It was a good dinner at Dharma's. Nice family of 3; Mr Dharma, Mrs Dharma and their son Vidjya. 'Sakti', Mrs Dharma's cute sister, who looked around 20 years old, joined us after dinner. I did a nice magic show, everyone had fun. Mrs Dharma did not look very happy though, she was quite wary of my magic. Probably thought I had some 'dark' powers, or maybe she was just not happy that my face was red from the whiskey.

The TV was playing a local drama which consists mainly of slow motion eye staring shots, ala bad Kill Bill clone. Over food and TV, we found out that it costed them RS 1000 (Nepal Rupees), about SGD 22 (Singapore dollars or USD 14 rent for the small university dormitorio like room they are living at. Daily living expenses for the family is around RS 300-500, less than SGD10.

A week for Nepali starts on sunday, normally 6 working days, saturday rest. Almost all the kids go to school. The education system is similar to America.

We had a very full dinner of baked beans, rice and chilli beans. Took a taxi back to hotel. There was no electricity again. Nick and I slept once again under the romantic candle lights.

I prayed hard that the bus could go to Pokhara the next day.

Friends,

Lets take a break from Buenos Aires and tango. For my last few weeks in Buenos Aires I plan to cover some of the major milongas and the tango scene here in Buenos Aires.

But first let me bring back the good times I had in Nepal last year april, travelling with my good friend Nicholas.

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Namaste mero nam Isaac ho! (Hi my name is Isaac!)

Nepal Travel Experience

Day 1: Singapore, Changi Airport 17/03/06

Clean efficient toilets, new toilet rolls of the best quality, feels so gentle against the buttcheeks; cleaners go in immediately after we use them.

Illusion of Singapore's prosperity?? There was always this stress from the government about Singapore maintaining her 'first world' image. Thats really evident at the airport, where visitors get their first and last impressions.

We saw no nepalese babes where we are waiting, at the Nepalese Airlines check in queue. Loads of Nepalese men, generally waiting from the transit from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

As the plane took off in the air, suddenly, I thought of Gene again....couldn't resist but sent her a text message. As I thought about the recent trip I had to Phuket, where she was on my mind all the time. I literally saw Phuket through her eyes. Would that happen again to the Nepal trip?

As the plane turns into Kathmandu, the faraway strips of clouds reveal their true selves...Peaks of the ridgelines of Himalayas, flying just right beside me. The airplane monitor flashed a message 'Sunny but cool, 24 deg Cel'.

As we flew lower to the ground, layers upon layers of terrace cultivation litter the vast overlapping ridgelines & mountain passes.

On arrival, like all most airports I've been to, the arrival gate is swarmed with tour agencies, taxi drivers, limo drivers, hotel guides and tour guides, etc. We hopped onto one of the taxi God destined for us and the driver drove us to Thamel street, stopping us at a certain Mt Annapurna Guest House.

Spent SGD700 plus each, with trekking company. Found out later that night from Andy, an Ozzy mountaineering veteran that it was money well spent. Andy, a professional mountain climber, who lost 2 toes while conquering Evertest, had been in Nepal for ages, married a nice nepalese woman and started his own trekking equipment and guide company. He would later tell me that conquering Evertest is nothing like the behemoth task it was like in the past. With a wink in the eye he told me and Nicholas, "With USD50k, I'll bring you guys up to the top of the world."

We met our mountain guide, Dharma. He took us around to get all the winter equipment we will need for our grand climbing trip in the Annapurna Circuit, Mount Annapurna, Pokhara.

Took a day tour around city center. Made eyes with a few cute gals, check that... cute girls made eyes with me (say what you want about that Nic..). The traffic in Kathmandu was crazy, there were no pavements for pedestrains, no traffic lights. The tiny roads were barely 2 cars wide, with shop entrances and houses just lined up right beside the street. Numerous small korean cars line the streets, sharing them with the pedestrains of Kathmandu, horse carts, trishaws, and sacred cows. Crazy vortex of ruleless drivers meet at the cross junctions like a tornado; for a car to make it across a junction looks almost like a car being ejected from a swirling tornado. To top it all off, constant 'honking' no one cares after awhile.

Long day is over. Had a good talk with Nic. No electricity in our guest house's room!!! Turned out that Nepal was experiencing electricity rationing. No matter. We were beat, fell asleep like babies.

How do you stay in Buenos Aires forever with a tourist visa? What the people commonly do is to exit Argentina every three months and come back through the customs. "Its very easy! They always let me through, no questions asked! I've been travelling to Uruguay every 3 months for 3 years now!!" So sayeth my tall, beautiful and blonde New Zealand friend, who had been here for ages. I met her dancing in El Beso. Well, we shall see if that applies to a not so tall, not so beautiful, and definitely not blonde chinese man.

Uruguay was out of question for me, as I (Singaporeans) needed a tourist visa to Uruguay. Not only that, the Uruguayan counsulate needed some Uruguayan to actually invite me to go to their country for the visa to be approved. What are the chances of a Singaporean getting to know an Uruguayan well enough for them to be the guarantee of my trip, before even stepping on Uruguayan soil? The answer to this weird policy would probably be left best answered by our friendly Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

So Chile, where I do not need a visa, is the next best country for sealing a three months tourist pass extension. Its right beside Argentina; 2 hour plane journey. Not too adventurous like Bolivia; where I would go when I finally decide to take up cocaine smuggling, wait... I don't think you actually need to smuggle cocaine in Bolivia.

I would have liked to go to the hot, exotic, topless beaches of Brazil which are full of silicon enhanced breasts and butts, however... I would need a visa for that place; damn. The other latin american countries are all too faraway.

Originally I wanted a take a bus journey from Buenos Aires to Santiago, the capital of Chile; passing by The Andes in the process. But the 24 hour one way bus trip would cost 180 pesos (90SGD), which costs as much as a 2 hour plane ride by 'Voegol', a brazilian operated airline (http://www.voegol.com.br/ARG/).

Being cooped up in this metropolitan city, Buenos Aires, an island boy like me who grew up in Singapore decided to hit the beaches of Chile. A chilean tango couple here in Buenos Aires told me that the nicest beach that is near Santiago is called Papudo. Its not as crowded, with a clean beach and chilly waters.

Not wanting to be alone, I then asked the lovely Sil, my tango practise partner if she wants to go with me; I took a long shot. To my pleasant surprise she said yes. So Sil and me would spend a weekend in Chile.

Sil told me she has fear of flying and is most afraid when the plane takes off. I told her that is when I feel the most comfortable, because it means the trip is finally taking place; I detest all the check-in, check-out processes and adminstrative proceedings for travelling. True enough, the trip almost hit a snag even before we left the airport of Buenos Aires.

I entered the check-in counter of Voegol, and the lady behind the counter curtly asked for my entry visa to Chile. Well, I explained to her Singaporeans do not need a tourist visa to enter Chile, like we do not need a tourist visa to enter Argentina for a period up to 90 days. She looks at me straight in the eye and said "Singaporean passports needs visa to visit all places in the world." Then proceeds to correspond with higher authority with her walkie talkie. "Does a Singapore passport holder need a visa to travel to Chile?" She asked. "Si!" I heard a male voice from the other end. She did not even bother to explain to me, just held the walkie talkie near my face with a smug look.

"Sorry you are not going to Chile" and she tore up my tickets. "Come back again on monday when the Chile Embassy is open and we'll get you the necessary visa to go." I was horrified. What can I possibly do? I checked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (http://www.mfa.gov.sg/) before I booked the plane. And how am I suppose to change the flight till monday on such a short notice? What about Sil who took her leave off work?

Refusing to believe the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore could be wrong (if there is one thing Singaporeans are good at, its paper work and administrative processes; almost clockwork). And taking the cue from the casual manner the lady is handling this problem, I asked her, "Well, do you want me to come with me to show you the website of my Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Also I called the chilean embassy and they told me I don't need a visa."

As if that pathetic rant is going to scare her. She rolled her eyes and then spoke to the walkie talkie again. "The guy says chilean embassy told him that he doesn't need." The line behind me was building up but I steadfastly refused to leave, while contemplating between the possibility of going back to Singapore early, or slipping her a 100 peso bill (hey we're in South America!).

Hope against hope, the man behind the voice came back, "Singaporeans do not need a visa. I made a mistake." On hearing that, I almost wanted to pounce on her and strangle her right there and then. But I kept my cool and just stared at Miss 'All Singaporeans need a visa' print my new airticket with uneasiness. "I'm sorry sir, here's your ticket." Well, I feel more relieved than vindicated. I anticipated that these administrative bullshit will crop up anyway.

The flight was peaceful and I did get an airplane view of the Andes. Spectacular, but ranks behind the airplane view of the Himalayans of Nepal and Tabletop Mountain of South Africa.

On arriving the chilean customs we found out that Sil's DNI (personal identification card) has expired. But it did not really bother the customs officer there. Pays to be a pretty argentine woman.

Santiago, Chile feels very much like Buenos Aires. It is more peaceful, cleaner, with lesser hustle and bustle compared to Buenos Aires. The pavements are wider, without rubbish and vagrants. There are dogs sleeping around but unlike Buenos Aires, no dogshit. On the other hand, it does not have the kind of character Buenos Aires generates; lesser cultural monuments, less elaborated architechture and the people stand out lesser. Buenos Aires gives a very particular old world french/ italian flavor, Santiago has none of that.

Nevertheless I like this place. One could live here for a long time. It feels safe and the people are more serene. To me it feels like a city on the verge of breaking into a developed country. The strong middle class is quite evident on the streets; consumerism is strong, low inflation in the shops, and poverty is not visible on the streets. It has an advance public train system. [I arrived at the time where the public bus system (Transantiago) was going through a transition, so the disgruntled people were complaining about the changes.]

Sil and I took the chance to shop for some electronics. The prices of electronics in Buenos Aires is incredibly high due to inflation. Argentineans going to Chile to get electronics is not uncommon; much like Singaporeans going to Johore to get petrol, or toilet paper, or a lapdance.

The visit to the museums of Santiago was pretty fascinating too. Due to the elongated geographic nature of Chile, the culture, living habits of different tribes differ greatly with their location. If I ever take up anthropolgy or I ever visit Chile again, it would be for these trbes and their crafts.

At night Sil and I headed out to a milonga that was called "Patio E'Tango" (http://www.chiletango.cl/). It was filled with senior citizens. And it was great fun watching them dance. The level of tango is not too bad. Of course nothing compared to the level of Buenos Aires, but at least they were no crazy nuevo moves in the middle of the milonga. The only problem was that there was not 'cortina' (small break) to mark the 'tandas' (set of 4 tangos); so Siland I just danced amongst ourselves. There were a couple of young dancers that danced pretty well. I could almost see the Javier Rodriguez influence in them. There was another young guy who danced with every lady and danced every song. He practically danced with the ladies one after another in the order of their seating arrangment; just like me when I started out! Well, a lady came up to us and told us we dance just like the Buenos Aireans. Sil told her we were from Bs.As.

The second day we took a 4 hour ride on a big comfortable bus from Santiago to Papudo beach. The bus company is called 'Turbus' (http://www.turbus.com/inicio.shtml). It is inexpensive, comfortble and takes you from Santiago the capital to all over Chile. Our 4 hour bus ride costs us about 40 pesos (20SGD) with and came with a free hollywood movie, in spanish, of course.

Papudo was a nice beach. Feels great to be one with the nature again. Its definitely not as beautiful as the beaches of Thailand. Good thing is, unlike the beaches of Thailand, which are always full of european hippies and reggae music, this beautiful beach is populated by... chileans! Its like a place where families from the nearby towns come and chill out during weekends and holidays.

We stayed at the beach for two nights. Doing pretty much nothing but sun tanning. I swam a bit in the chilly waters of Papudo. That was my first experience swimming in open waters; motivated by my dear brother, the recently crowned Ironman (good job! you got there first!). Ate my first fish since I left Singapore. The fishes in Buenos Aires are as expensive as the beef steaks in Singapore.

The chileans are really pretty nice and courteous. Quite a different breed from the loud and brash Argentines. It was quite evident by the treatment I received from the respective airports. The man behind the counter at the Santiago was all smiles, very friendly and sunny. Even Sil remarked she would miss the politeness of the chilean service. The man overheard our conversation and we had a good laugh.

When I arrived in the Argentine customs at Ezieza, the lady behind the counter eyed me with suspicion as she inspected my passport.

"What are your purposes in Argentina?" She asked. "Just travelling as a tourist." I answered. "Do you have a place to live in Buenos Aires? What are your means to support yourself? Show me your return ticket to Singapore." "Well I don't have the return ticket to Singapore with me. I have the tickets to Chile if you want to see them." I was getting pretty amused. What happened to "Its very easy! They always let me through, no questions asked!"??

"Ok let me see your credit card!" she said. Well take it, if thats going to help. She probably thinks I'm trying to come to Argentina to work illegally. God damn generalization and prejudism. Didn't God created all men to be equal? We have to ask ourselves this question too. We too, Singaporeans, have our own prejudisms against others. So what if I did earned money as a taxi dancer?!

But anyway after looking at my credit... okay, debit card. She disappeared to her office with my passport to discuss with 'higher authorities', appeared 15 minutes later and reluctantly gave me another 3 months extension stamp.

I have a sneaky feeling it won't be so easy the next time I want to get another 3 months extension through this method.

Unless I bleach my hair blonde, put on blue contact lenses and speak with a french accent.

The version that I hear most often in milongas; probably the most famous but definitely my favourite is by Edgardo Donato.

The start of this piece is probably the start I like best in all the tangos. The long drag of the violin combined with the light plucking of the second violin gives a very intriguing feel to the beginning. Its telling you something important is about to unfold; an event that will change the life of the author forever. And the bass (bandoneon and the piano) trudging and trudging at the background, like a man with much weight on his shoulders, just dragging himself along, moving forward, reluctantly.

Then 45 seconds into the piece comes my favourite part of the music. The long drags of the violin, giving the feeling that you are sitting on a tiny boat in the middle of the sea, rocking gently to the waves.

When I hear this piece playing the in milonga, I always feel like jumping onto the dancefloor because it is so moving and yet expressive. Its a nostalgic piece, filled with angst but the orchestra of Donato added to it another dimension of expressiveness. Its really a piece where you can dance to the deep nostalgia and yet also get creative to the music.

Here it goes... only the first paragraph of the lyrics is sung in the version of Donato, but I translated all anyway.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EL ADIOS
Letra de Virgilio San Clemente
Musica de Maruja Pacheco Huergo
Compuesto en 1937

Courteousy of http://www2.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/

The Goodbye

En la tarde que en sombras se moria,
buenamente nos dimos el adios;
mi tristeza profunda no veias
y al marcharte sonreiamos los dos.
Y la desolación, mirandote partir
quebrada de emoción mi pobre voz...
El sueño más feliz moria en el adios,
y el cielo para mi se oscurecio.

(In the afternoon where the shadows died,
firmly we said to each other ‘goodbye’;
my deep sadness you did not see
and when you left we both smiled.
And the desolation, when I saw you leaving
my poor voice was broken by the emotion...
The happiest dream died at the ‘goodbye’,
and the sky for me became dark.)

En vano el alma
con voz velada
volco en la noche la pena...
Solo un silencio
profundo y grave
lloraba en mi corazón.

(In vain the soul
with a hidden voice
emptied out the pain in the night...
Only a silence
deep and grave
cried in my heart.)

Sobre el tiempo transcurrido
vives siempre en mi,
y estos campos que nos vieron
juntos sonreir,
me preguntan si el olvido,
me curo de ti.
Y entre los vientos
se van mis quejas
muriendo en ecos,
buscandote...
Mientras que, lejos,
otros brazos y otros besos
te aprisionan y me dicen
que ya no has de volver.

(Passing the time
you lived always in me,
and these fields that saw us
together smiling,
They ask if I forgotten,
I get cured of you.
And between the winds
my cries leave
dying in echos,
looking for you...
While that, faraway,
other arms and other kisses
imprison you and tell me
that already you have no return.)

Cuando vuelva a lucir la primavera,
y los campos se pinten de color,
otra vez el dolor y los recuerdos
de nostalgias llenaran mi corazón.
Las aves poblaran de trinos el lugar
y el cielo volcara su claridad...
Pero mi corazón en sombras vivira,
y el ala del dolor te llamara.

(When spring returns,
and the fields are painted of color,
once again the pain and the memories
of nostalgias reach my heart.
The birds living at the place will sing again
and the sky will return to her clarity...
But my heart will continue to live in the shadows,
and the wing of the pain will call out to you.)

En vano, el alma
dira a la luna;
con voz velada la pena
y habra un silencio
profundo y grave,
llorando en mi corazón.

(In vain, the soul
will say to the moon;
with hidden voice the pain
and will have a silence
deep and grave,
crying in my soul)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the past two months, I had been sharing the lovely apartment of my dear friend Jean Michel with three other beautiful ladies; living a life similar to Hugh Hefner (owner of Playboy... just kidding).

Anna Karin, the beautiful half spanish and swedish whomI wrote about, some months back. Dances a beautiful samba and zouk. I think she has more hot latin blood than swedish. She is my age but she feels like a little sister to me and we have a great time talking and joking around.

Fabiana, an argentine girl who is out and out latina. She is full of fire, speaks her mind and hot like a firecracker. But with a heart of gold. She helped me sort out my passport problems and even offered get to married to me so that I can have a Argentine citizenship.

Antra, a latvian with lovely long blonde hair and big beautiful blue eyes. She has the exact same birthday as me; 16th of Dec. So as both of us are Sagitaurus; we both like travelling, same sense of humour and same thirst for new experiences. With her, we can talk and laugh for hours.

Its been great, after years of bunking in with guys. Finally I have a change in my life.

Been loving it.

Moment of the month: Walking in on my roomates sunbathing in the patio... Topless.

Primero, nos miramos desde lejos. Luego, camine hasta donde estabas sentada. Un poco antes de llegar a ti, te paraste y hiciste la ultimo pasos hacia a mi ; como un beso, donde las chicas hacen los ultimo pasos en los momentos finales.

Y juntos, caminamos hasta la pista donde todos los bailarins estaban parados y sentados. Y el resto miraban desde afuera, con ojos observadores.

Estabas parada frente a mi, muy cerca, sonriendo con cara pensativa. Por un segundo cerre mis ojos, no pensaba en nada y me concentraba solo en vos. Respire profundo y abri mis brazos ; pero no me acerque a ti, porque mis brazos te estaban invitando. Te di tiempo, cuando estabas lista, viniste a mi.

Lentamente, con mucha confianza, me acerque con un paso corto. Mi brazo derecho alrededor de tu cuerpo; suavamente, como si fueras un bebe, te trataba con mucho carino, me tocaste mi mano izquierda.

Como un malevo, un hombre bravo ; respire profundo otra vez, pense, ‘Dejame cuidate. No te preocupes.’

Como un mina de milonga, una mujer que sabia todo ; tambien tomaste un aire profundo. Tu pecho estaba lleno tambien. Me dijiste, ‘Espero tener una experiencia buena.’

Sentia tu cuerpo, suave, relajado y tranquilo. Mi cuerpo estaba lleno de carino y amor. Y te prometi cuidarte cuando estabas en mi abrazo.

Finalmente, tu cabeza se puso sobre la mia. Estabamos escuchando musica y hablando. Hablamos, pero no con labios ni bocas ; con nuestro manos, pechos y cabeza.

Por cuartro temas nos enamoramos. Nuestro mundo quedo en el abrazo.