Who are the Betel Nutters
The Betel Box Backpackers Hostel & Tours is run by a team of dedicated and talented young people who are passionate about Singapore.
Current Team:
The Founders:
The Betel Box Hostel was started by Mark and Tony. To give you some background of why the Hostel was set up and what are our core beliefs, we posed 5 questions to them.
About Mark Holleman
About Tony Tan
Justin See
1) Hobbies:
Always living at the edge of life.. i like extreme sports... I love the great outdoor..
2) My Tour:
Pulau Ubin, an island located at Eastern part of Singapore, where you find no tall buildings, but traditional houses made of zinc roof and wooden walls..
I m doing the Nature Walk Tour where i convert the legs into wheels...
I will bring guests around parts of the island, using bikes that can be
rent on the island.
3) I like the hostel because:
Its just like home.. everyone in the hostel treats each other like brothers
and sisters..
There are alot of laughters, and fun... simply ... A HOME AWAY FROM HOME...
4) Memorable Experience in the Hostel:
Although hostel is like a home to me... its also a party ground..
Having a lot of people sitting together, drinking beers and liquor, sharing
travelling experiences, their life experiences, etc... and playing pools,
playstation..
Just So Comfortable..
DINESH
1) Hobbies:
I enjoy reading and nursing colourful cocktails. Some times both at the
same time.
2) My Tour:
The pubcrawls has come a long way since the first one. The pubcrawl now
brings the crew to the depths of the singapore river to the colonial supremacy
of the civic district. We will learn, eat, drink , dance and laugh the night
away.
3) I like the hostel because:
The hostel has been a big part of my life since i left the army. Not only
has this job opened my eyes in a big way, i truely enjoy meeting people
from all over the world who have the most peculiar of personalities and
interesting anecdotes you can ever find.
4) Memorable Experience in the Hostel:
There is really too much to fill in. Been here for almost 2 years. We
shall talk about this over a beer shall we? Tsing Tao Premium any one?
XueLun Wu
1) Hobbies:
Xuelun is a daydreamer, she an awful cyclist but she dreams of doing her very own Tour de SEA someday, she loves to go to the nearest public pool and thinks she's in Nice, she loves to travel and wants to spend summer picking avocados in Australia, she loves to feed and talk to the cat, .... ....
2 ) I like the hostel because:
Anyone who works in an office 9-to-6 job would know how badly it damages the soul. At the hostel, you meet someone new, someone funny, someone weird, someone nasty, everyday. Hearing their travel stories keeps me spirited.
Claes Erik Eriksson
1) Hobbies:
Computer Gaming, travelling, meeting new people, appreciating/ creating
art.
2) My Tour:
...
3) I like the hostel because:
I was actually once a guest here. Now i am a staff/slave. The hostel is
very personal and welcoming. Taking time on each individual guest. The overall
atmosphere in this place makes you feel at home.
4) Memorable Experience in the Hostel:
The memories (nightmares) of the WOMAD festival i attented with guests
and staff from the hostel still buzzes within me. SInce the time i was a
guest to now a staff i enjoyed hanging around in the hostel and chilling
out with a cold beer.. All the food i tried around the hostel neighbourhood.
Tey BiQin
Jacqueline Poh
About Mark Holleman
Mark Holleman, a Dutch national, has spent the last 9 years living, studying and working in London. Mark has spent a lot of time backpacking all over the world; his first big backpacking trip was in 1998 when he spent about a year backpacking through Australia and Central and South America.
His second big trip was in 2002, when Mark decided to quit his job back in London and to take off for Asia, spending 9 months travelling through India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
It was during this last trip that Mark visited Singapore several times and that he realised that there was no decent backpacker accommodation in Singapore. The existing backpacker or budget hotels were cheap for a good reason!
This is how the idea of the Betel Box Backpacker Hostel started...
Q1: How are you fitting in?
Mark: Singaporeans are very friendly people and I have
felt at home right from the beginning. This is not really a surprise, because
Singapore is a melting pot of different cultures, races and religions, so
Singaporeans are used to hanging out with all sorts of people.
It took some time for me to get used to the weather though; I have always wanted to live in a warm and exotic country, but I had never experienced living and working in such a warm and humid place. But I am getting there...
Q2: What are your favourite memories of living in Singapore?
Mark: It has to be the food (I am starting to sound like
a Singaporean already)! There are so many different dishes, types of cuisines,
deserts, snacks and drinks; it will take me years to try it all out! My
favourites would have to be nasi padang (you should try the nasi padang
at Hajjah Mona Nasi Padang in the Geylang Serai Market, it is amazing) sambal
stingray, satay, dim sum and lemon chicken. My favourite drink has to be
ice cold sugar cane juice!
Q3: What is the must-do item if you are showing a friend around
in Singapore?
Mark: The list is long...try every type of food, having
a look around the various stalls in the Geylang Serai Market, walking around
Little India, having an ice cold beer at Ice
Cold Beer on Emerald Hill, attending a bird singing competition, admiring
the largest collection of exotic birds I have ever seen at Jurong
Birdpark...
Q4: What do you do in your spare time?
Mark: If the spare time is short, I am likely to go out!
I love living outdoors and in Singapore, I can dine and drink outside any
time of the year!
My main interests are scuba diving and for photography and Asia is the perfect place for it. Now that I am based in Singapore, I am right smack in the middle of all the action and within easy reach of some of the most spectacular destinations!
Q5: What are your goals for the hostel?
Mark: Although there are many fun and interesting sights
and attractions, Singapore is a small place. However, Singapore is an ideal
place to spend some time taking a break from travelling around and is like
a travel hub for Southeast Asia; from Singapore, you can easily reach a
number of destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia (including Sabah and Sarawak)
and Indonesia.
My goals for the hostel are to create a comfortable place where travellers can relax for a while and which travellers can use as a base for exploring Southeast Asia.
Write to Mark
About Tony Tan
Tony Tan has spent the majority of the last 10 years away from Singapore mainly in England, Australia and Scotland. After yet another UK winter in 2002, he decided that enough is enough, he needs the sun, food and smiles, and, packed his bag homeward bound.
Q1: How are you fitting in?
Tony: The adjustment coming back to Singapore wasn't as
bad as I thought. For the first 6 months, I did feel like a tourist, amazed
at what has changed, but these days I feel just at home!
Q2: What are your favourite memories of living in Singapore?
Tony: For the first 9 years of my life, I was living on
my grandmother's farm in Serangoon Gardens. I remember idylic school holidays
with my cousins building rafts from banana trees and fishing in the pond
filled with water hyacinths. The street (more like a dirt track) was lined
with durian and rambutan trees and aunties would warn of pontianaks
(Malay version of vampire) that prey on children and hide in the trees so
that we will not continue playing in the dark. I really cherish that part
of my life.
Q3: What is the must-do item if you are showing a friend around
in Singapore?
Tony: It really depends on what the person likes doing
but my favourites are Pulau
Ubin, heritage district walks around Little India or Chinatown and hawker
centre tours in one of the satellite towns.
I feel that Singapore has alot to offer to the backpacker. My style of travelling is more about meeting people and seeing how they actually live. Ironically, travellers to Singapore often never wander into one of the towns. Over 80% of people in Singapore live in high-rise apartments and HDB (Housing Development Board) built estates. Each town is self-sufficient catering for the needs of the families living there. Most importantly, these housing estates are the total opposite of council estates in UK.
This unique living environment is something that most travel guides do not even suggest as interesting but I do recommend travellers to try it our for themselves. Spend a couple of hours there, see the local shops with its strange mix of produce, have a meal at the town centre hawker centre, visit the library and surf the net for free, chill with the retirees that play chess and checkers for hours on the void decks. (Void decks are open spaces at the ground level of HDB apartment blocks). This is the way that real Singaporeans live.
With modernisation and urbanisation, its unfortunate that most travellers would only remember Singapore as a concrete jungle. However, don't just follow what the guide books say. If you want to see primary rain forest, try a hike through Bukit Timah Hill. Or, check out the beautiful and protected white Malayan Cranes at Sungei Buloh. And if you want to see how Singapore was in the 1960s, take a day break and go to Pulau Ubin where you can see how "progress" has not really affected everyone.
Q4: What do you do in your spare time?
Tony: I scuba dive and cycle. Diving in Singapore is actually
not as boring as some divers make it out to be. No doubt the visibility
is poor due to the rich soil sendiments, however, if you take it slow, you
can see turtles, clown fishes, sting rays and eels. I remember my first
open water dive some 6 years ago at Pulau
Hantu, we even saw a dugong!
Being a cyclist, battling the traffic is my major gripe. Depending on the type of cycling you do, there are still some places you should sample. For off-road riding, hire a bike at Pulau Ubin jetty and roam free through the jungle tracks where you can still come across wild boars and other strange creatures. Roadies will be pretty bored in Singapore as this is a small country but the East Coast parkway stretch to Changi Village is scenic with broad views of the sea.
Q5: What are your goals for the hostel?
Tony: Singapore is really a small space but its at the
right location where travellers can meet moving between continents. I really
want to create a community space, not just virtually but in terms of location
where travellers can drop by and share stories.
I hope that the kind of travellers we attract will reinforce our community efforts to retain our physical, natural and cultural heritage.
Write to Tony