I am CRAZZZieeee!!!

In spite of seeking advise from Sg. Buloh er-jie, who strongly discourage me to bring a 6mo baby along to UK travel, I still can't imagine any other way. And I've been reading and thinking of all the possibilities, till the extend of my brain getting too heavy...

I need to bring my baby along wherever I go, no matter how far and how troublesome it would be, because I need to breastfeed the baby! You know, for all nursing mothers, if baby is not with you, you need to pump milk. Well I can bring a manual pump, but how about milk storage?! Between choosing to nurse a cranky baby vs manually express milk 6 times a day (without baby direct latching) - obviously former wins.

There is a risk for baby falling sick, due to low immune system at merely 6 months old. I'm not sure about that... how about the chances of baby NOT falling sick? There's a risk of jeopardizing baby's schedule... what's a schedule for baby?! Milk - sleep - play - poo cycle. I can bf baby anywhere in the plane, in the car, in the park, in the hotel... Baby can sleep on my body with my baby carrier, can sleep in the bassinet, can sleep in the baby carseat, ... Seriously WHY do I NOT see it as troublesome?!!

You will gain amazing experience and its all in the mindset that you CAN do it!

Will I regret about the bad things that might happen to baby because I decided to bring baby along with me to travel half way round the globe? How about asking, will I regret NOT bring baby? Will I regret NOT travelling at all?

Hubby says "you think you'll have no chance to travel next time?" I tell you what... what is "next time?" How many 38-year-old do you get in your life? When you talk about money investment or insurance - time is money. You start save or invest early, you reap more $$$ in the long term. Talking about travelling, its not like I'm travelling for the benefit of myself only. I'm bringing my MOTHER and mother-in-law ALONG to their fave destination. I know I can just send them to join another travel agency traveling all the way by coach. It's different! My mom will surely complain about all the walking she need to do.... but since I'm PLANNING for the trip with my mom's physique in mind, I want her to ENJOY the trip, with the least walking to do, and least lugging the suitcase around.

She may complain about the hassle of having to care for a small baby while travelling, but me having to lug a baby along will surely slow me down, and perhaps my mom would be able to keep up my 'slower pace'!

So what if I try to imagine myself travelling "next time"... when baby is older... that's when my elder son would have started formal school, thereby lesser window of opportunity to fit in a summer holiday to the northern or southern hemisphere.

Why can't I travel without the kids?! Would I want to mafan other ppl to take care of my own kids while I go on holiday to enjoy myself?!! My kids will miss me... i will miss my kids... I think I still can afford to bring them along in my trips.

Yeah... I must be one hell of a crazy mummy. I may go down as worst mummy ever... and that's just who I am, and how my brain and emotions are wired. I'm soooo immensely thankful that I have my kids, and its easy to get pregnant for me, and my kids are a part my life now, until they're 18yo.

At end of it all - I can share with you, whether it was bad or good experience. I may be able to write a book about it... If i didn't go, no experience to write about... life is just a mundane same routine, what do I live for? 

runaway to singapore!

for some strange reason the previous post was truncated and i couldn't rewrite the whole story again... so forget it.

im really looking forward to throwing everything down and lug my basic stuff like money & camera.. of cos passport and go away!

this is it... spore... seeing new people I dont see in my daily life.. re-seeking the meaning of my life and enjoying the wondering around with just me and my bag. i'll go eat what i want.. go see who i wanna see... go talk about what i wanna talk... go smile with a newborn infant... just go away!

go away from everyone.... well just for slightly less than 4 days nia. suddenly im missing the solo elephant ride in the jungle of chiangmai :P

Hello from Halong Bay

We're waiting for the Paradise Cruise 1 to set a sail to the sea... the lounge own by the company www.paradisecruises.org.

This is only the 2nd day of my trip to Hanoi-Halong Bay. My trip encounter so far has been nothing less than traffic chaos, unwell body and bizarre experience. I kept thinking of sayang, if he could survive this one day driving around the Old Quarter of Hanoi together with the amazing guy Meng Hoe and his driver.

I saw a couple of brown robe monk, probably from plum village. Since I've encountered with the peace and tranquility of Thich Nhat Hant during his recent visit to Malaysia... now being in Vietnam where TNH were supposed to be in exiled from, can't help but to compare how would any Zen practitioner live calmly & meditate amidst this chaos?

If a person can still remain calm and mindful inspite of surrounded by all the traffic madness and chaotic livestyle, isn't this person practising a higher level of mindfulness meditation? As compared to the Zen followers who can naturally practise mindfulness/meditation amidst quiet and tranquil surrounding, ie. Plum Village in France.

Amidst the surrounding chaos, is the mind being trapped in the chaos struggling to break free? Or inspite of the traffic turmoil, one can still mentally be free and smile with the people scootering or steering behind the wheel?

I had the experience of sitting on a scooter without a helmet, moving around from small lanes to the freeway... seeing and experiencing the way humans, motorbikes and cars wld crisscross each other "mindfully". Vehicles wld stop or swerve / turn to avoid collision. If a bike were to kiss a car, its OK. No need to fret about it. No smile. Just move on... people are so immune.... indifferent. Its even a culture for them to consume dog meat! How bizarre is that? To them is nothing.

Sitting on a small stool by the roadside eating noodle is nothing. Eating the same noodle everyday with the same taste is nothing. Simply crossing the road without regards to oncoming cars is nothing.

Maybe its the long history of war and suffering that befallen them? I wish and try to enjoy my first Vietnam trip, but the soullessness and indifferent attitute of Vietnam, is forcing me to activate my Upekkha.

Will there be complete freedom onboard the cruise on Halong Bay?

wooohoooo....

oh my gawwwdddd... i booked my free flights to bali! been a long time since i last booked a flight ok ok, i remembered i went to ladakh not long ago but that was all 'arranged / booked' by other people for me. you know the fun part about travelling or organising something, is the 'planning'! i am so drooling all over gawking at the beautiful villa pictures.

i hope i don't annoy u for repeating myself over and over again - im going to bali for honeymoon! don't care if its gonna be rainy season -- becos airasia travel period is until 31Jan2010, and our wedding date is 23Jan2010. So that's the only week left to take advantage of the 1-day-only-free-seats-up-for-grabs promo!

if it rains, we'll just chill out at the hotel (or villa) can't believe if i'm gonna book any of the beachfront / oceanview villa which is going to burn my bank account. i have a budget to keep up with, that's to spend under rm2k for two of us. possible right?

got a new house and a wedding to stretch our finances... at the end of it, i know it'll all turn out well. don't bother if its the ox year where goat fan-tai-sui, i think the past few years, the goat didn't have 'good' prediction either.

did anybody watch 'bridewars'? well, sayang think im like liv, the impatient bossy girl, while i think i'm mix of both liv and emma. go watch it!

yay CNY is over now :) can start get things done (where relying on other people is concerned)!

Ladakh - the land of the extremes!

There's alot of words to describe this magnificent awesome place call Ladakh! But nothing beats showing you pictures, of why I like this place... well there's reasons to make yo wanna think twice about coming back here again.... but one of the few things that I deeply treasure about this trip:-

1. Opportunity to meet Ven Sanghasena & the chance to listen to the very sincere, full of wisdom & compassion, frank but funny Dhamma sharing.

2. The exceptionally warm welcome & hospitality shown by the children! Honestly, on the first day of my arrival at Mahabodhi, listening to the voice of the children singing welcome-song in their own style, and bowing to you, and offering you lovely flowers as you walk pass all the children lining up to greet you endlessly... believe me, my heart sank.

The beauty of Mahabodhi, lies not just on the picture perfect snow-capped moutain view surrounding you... but on the warm smiles of the children, esp the very cute little ones... you just don't know where they get the Metta look from! Maybe they all inherit from their most respected venerable Sanghasena. I have utmost respect for this Theravada-trained monk, who encourage non-sectarian approach, who encourage the order of nuns just as much as for monks, who place education as primary agenda to curb poverty in poor Ladakh for the people.

It's amazing to find out how a visionery monk can truly inspire me. For the whole week when we're in Ladakh, we were being constantantly reminded to 'live here and now'. It was quite easy, to just breath in / out, and not let the mind wander off. I was just being there. I also realised something about 'change' / 'growth' ... and I managed to survive without digital communication for nearly a week! It is indeed possible! When there is no signal.. no sms service... no internet... and the mind is living by the present moment.... I do not have to be slave to my handphone and the computer! The only thing I've not yet learnt to letgo is my digital camera.

I took about 2000 pictures... I had to delete some earlier photos to fit it a few Delhi pictures on my last day in India.

Some of the difficulties that I have to endure at Ladakh:

1. The very cold temperature in the early morning / at night.... so much so I hardly bath. Freezing weather!

2. The mountain view is incredible no doubt, but the bumpy winding journey up the mountain makes me very dizzy, worst when I tried play with my camera while on the move.

3. The milk is really not for me. Though they always humbly serve us milk tea and most flask contain milk instead of hot water. I could not take the smell of their milk! Infact, on the first day in Ladakh, I vomitted. I don't know why I vomitted except that I know I'm embarrassed that I couldn't enjoy their food.

This trip also made me feel so thankful for Malaysian food! Now I love thosai / roticanai with dal & milo drink & nasi-lemak with aromatic sambal even more!

....ven. Sanghasena, you inspire!

"ZAIA"

Of all the usual stuff that you can expect from my 2nd Hong Kong & Macao trip, there is one thing that I almost forgot to blog about! I must not forget that munyee's abang belanja me to watch this fantastic "show" I've ever seen in my life -- Cirque du Soleil. And the first ever show to be staged in Asia at none other the Venetian Macao with the largest casino in the world!

Not that I'm proud of being at Asia's biggest gambling city (I really didn't feel any spiritual energy here)... but I have to blog about this "ZAIA" Cirque du Soleil that, before this I was so jakun... I've never heard of it!

What circus? What broadway musical? What umbrella flying & cycling in the air? Hmm... ro begin with, I'm not a circus person and I don't understand clown (not scared) just look at clown like -- Doh.

But I'm still overwhelmed by the super yau yeng innovation & engineering that a 'stage' could be built with. The big globe suspending from the high ceiling can motion front and back... the feature-girl can swing to all directions while hanging in the air... the swift transformation of the stage from one scene to another... artistic digital visuals as the backdrop...

Just technically speaking -- I'm bought. Though abit paiseh I did doze off in the middle of some parts when the artistes were just circling or rotating or jumping endlessly.

Click here for photos. You must click here to view the video clip to get a feel of what I'm trying to describe.

Other than this extravagant expensive show, I didn't see much the hotel... was rushing through one of the lobby to another wing of the lobby... passed through the casino floor which was really... supremely spacious. I wonder where all the gamblers came from?

When I say no spiritual energy... I'm trying to mean that the greed energy is very strong for the whole city, it has diluted spirituality / religious practises (if there's any).

Career & Trip in 1 story

Today.. back to office after 5days in HK-Macao... while my teamlead is still on leave... I tender my resignation letter to the manager in line. During lunch time, quickly hop on the lrt to jamek to return offer letter to the bank-company duly signed. Ya will be joining a bank IT division probably supporting similar stuff... which I'm actually quite uncertain what it's all about. The interviewer was non-technical manager... and I'm to replace another girl who left. And I wonder if there's gonna be anybody to handover to me if the previous staff already left! The non-technical manager would probably expect to pick up everything by myself eh?! What more... she's looking for a thinker not just a doer!

Anyway, shall not let my mind wonder off too far... just like what I read about current Malaysian political front -- there's no uncertainty only opportunity. Nobody know for sure if DSAI will be the next PM, everybody just wish that something good will come out of the whole situation. Just like my job / career, nobody will know if new company will be good for my future... just expect the least, and hope for the best!

So now what about my HK trip?! Why people seem to like to ask this question. Maybe I'll be more excited if I came back from Europe or volunteering for beijing olympics... somehow, I'm just thankful and glad to be back home to Malaysia.

It was my 2nd trip to HK... which I was hesitating to go in the first place... because I've ALREADY backpacked travel HK-macao before 2 years old during xmas season. What could top that? I've come to acknowledge that travelling during summer / or extremely hot weather is a NO NO! In my 1st trip to HK-macao, I was freezing... in this trip, I was sweating like mad! The heat just took away half of the fun of sight-seeing / walking.

And my legs are itching.... got lotsa red spots like alergy or rashes, and sometimes I couldn't stop scratching it... already got ugly legs now tambah lagi red polka dots... no need to wear skirt liow. Lagi DnD besok... Might be due to the trip to Lantau island, Tai-O fishing village... I saw some tiny insects resting on my legs and I didn't bother to shoo it away. So hot and tired, I was trying to fan myself more than be bothered why the legs are itchy.

Abang stayed in this really fancy high-rise condo on the HK island by the sea side... the balcony overlooking the old airport and other side of HK. Pretty amazing sight from high up 69th floor but not inspiring enough... that I feel like I miss Malaysia!!!

I miss the roticanai & dal... the thosai and milo... they don't have my basic favourite food?! No MILO?! No nasi lemak.. no roti canai.. no sambal... eat dimsum without sauce... I've had enuff of wonton-mee with wonton full of prawns that I have no choice but to swallow it. Else if I dig out all the prawn then dunno eat what. The food is soooo not for me.

Each time we ordered lunch set which comes with a drink, the lansi-waitress will ask if you want coffee or nai-cha (milk tea), I always wanted to say "teh-o"... but I end up confusing her whenever I ask for "do u have anything without milk?!" Brrrrrrr..... ok "ice lemon tea" then. I know I shouldn't drink too much ice-lemon tea but that's the only drink I know how to say in cantonese which I will drink... not coffee not milk tea... and they got no MILO :( Menu are mostly in traditional chinese text which i could hardly make sense off... very pathetic for me coming from Chinese school but that's a fact, I don't understand the menu and they don't care to explain nicely.. or worst, they tend to sound insulting when you can't read.

One lady even say "don't bother reading that, that's in English, u won't know anyway"... *roll eye*

How about shopping? Well i went back to the same ESPRIT outlet store at Tsim Sha Tsui, bringing along the other travel mates. Cos tat's exactly where I went to for major shopping the last trip. Cos it's really tiring bargaining at the Ladies-Street, esp with that sweaty body. Atleast at the aircon big story, there's fitting room! You get to try and try and try and choose from so many ESPRIT apparels... its more rewarding I guess. Later we found out there's more of these 'outlet' stores at Lantau Island... but still not cheap lah... imagine outlets for DKNY, CK, AX, NIKE, Laura Ashley... 70% discount for a HK$5000 LV bag also pengsan neh!

Travelling abroad always make me look back home and appreciate the country that is Malaysia! Maybe can say... once a Malaysian, always a Malaysian?

Sayang bought me chinesy qibao blouse, purple-white colour.. I showed to mom, she said "you buy pyjama?"

My pilgrimage to Borobudor & nice Jogja Trip

This is my immediate post about my trip to Yogyakarta and Borobudor in Central Java, Indonesia. Pictures should be posted at facebook sooner or later, somehow I took toooo many shots, I don't know how to concise it into an hour of picture slideshow at BGF full moon / new moon puja night. What more there's bro Allan and Wfah's camera...

Like a massive photography spree for me, I've set the size to 'steps-medium' mode to fit in as many pictures I could for the 6days travel. The main agenda of the trip was the pilgrimage to Candi Borobudor, which started off from Candi Mendut, followed by Candi Pawat. Even during annual Wesak celebration in Borobudor, devotees will follow through a procession from these 3 Candi aligned in straight path.

Some said that if compared to Angkor Wat, although Angkor Kingdom is huge and more magnificent, but the 'energy' there at Borobudor is better :) Well I didn't agree to it until, I watched the breathtaking sunrise on the morning of 19June at 5.30am, from atop of the Borobudor grand stupa, with such a peaceful mind and heart full of aspiration! It was blissful.

Then as I potong-mega-metta-steam, by clicking my DLSR away... *its annoying you know to fellow meditators around* I think I had to choose between sitting down mindfully with eyes closed or open my eyes and snap pictures endlessly. Guess which I chose? Even after when its all over, they had to circumambulate the main stupa 7 times, mindfully obviously... guess what was I doing? Trying to make my mom pose like superman standing atop of volcano mountain over looking the stupas :P yeah yeah... so I though it wouldn't be complete if I didn't follow exactly what they did... when they were almost finishing they slow walk, I quickly dash around the stupa 7 times, using my fingers to help counting, momentarily stopped to shoot when I saw any amusing sight.

Also note worthy was on the Saga-dawa day of pilgrimage, which was 18June (Tibetan Vesak Day), we chanted and meditated at the East gate of Candi Borobudor with so many Indon visitors on-lookers. It was reallllllly uneasy for me, for people to keep walking infront of us and looking at us. We even made offerings placed on portable table. Yet, everybody just peacefully chanted and infact, I too sat quietly to meditate with eyes closed for that 5-10 mins! Like totally unmoved... *they say the energy there make it easy for you to meditate ah..*

So anyway, what I'm quite impressed is the many muslim visitors hiking up the Buddhist momument, some of them wearing the tudong. It was school holiday for Indonesia, so the kids were all brought to visit this world heritage Buddhist pilgrimage site! Ermm... so sad in Malaysia we won't see Muslim coming to visit temples for the sake of visiting. Infact they even tried to touch the 'lucky' Buddha... obviously for luck. They call it the lucky-Buddha because it was not destroyed when the terrorist put bomb at the 11 stupa at Borobudor. Actually Borobudor was not destroyed during the 2006 earthquake. But I know the logic is that because the foundation of the structure is strong, even more so after UN-backed-million-dollar-restoration effort.

Too bad Candi Prabanam did not get the funding from UN. It was quite hugely destroyed during the earthquake, so much so, we could not enter the candi to visit the interior, but only can view it from outside, that also only the rebuilt of the 6 main candi of the massively destroyed Prambanam temple complex. *imagine Angkor Wat*

I like it, the fact that the Javanese people follow a mix culture of Hinduism-Buddhism-Islam. Even in their Sultan palace showed elements of mix Hindu, Buddhist & Islamic design. *I wasn't paying much attention to what the palace guide was proudly explaining about her culture but I remembered what I liked to hear :P*

Batik! This one I must confess, ok nothing seriously, I love their Jogja geomatrical-flowery Batik floor-tiles-pattern design! So besides snapping pictures of nice floor tiles with pattern, it was impossible to snap pictures of all the pattern on the balik clothes. From shirt, skirt, pyjama, kimono, sandles, pants...etc.

And the price?! VERY CHEAP!!! Imagine coming out from a shop with 4 pieces of nice formal clothing at under RM45. If only I had more money, like Junie said, have to come back to buy their batik kebaya set! Sis. SiewEng did just that, the whole set she bought cost about RM180+, it's classic chic maroonish red made of silk cloth. So authentic. *admire*

Other than Batik, the J.Co doughnut was not cheap, maybe I didn't know the price of it in KL, eating 1/2 dozen J.CO can buy you a nice men batik shirt.

I sat on the 'becak' back to the hotel alone at the last day, at the end of my 'shopping-therapy'. It's like the Penang beca la, except this is more 'teruk', with the old man peddling looking so 'old' and me feeling 'paiseh' that pakcik have to peddle me back to the grand hotel that I stayed. I gave him 10,000 Rupiah for that 1km journey.

The hotel.... for MJ's life record, the most wonderful, nicest, yau-yeng hotel I've ever stayed before... what more for 4 nights -- the Grand Mercure Hotel. Too bad didn't try their buffet dinner at Rp150,000++ its not too expensive la! The hotel rates there are cheaper than the ones in the KL, but you really get 5-star service. I hope they maintain the excellent, friendly and warm service even if Jogja gets more commercialized.

From the bellboy, to the receptionist, to the waiter, to the swimming pool towel boy, housekeeping boy... they all smiled and greeted you with palms put together. I'm really not used to receiving such hospitality. Do they have such nice warm and friendly service in Malaysia?!! I really wonder....

Even the cashier lady said thankyou with such humility, I don't know where to knock my head after nodding my head so many times in the exchange of thankyou. Is it the whole Indonesian culture? Or is it the Javanese culture? Or is it because I really looked like a tourist being fairer than all the locals?

The hotel was so nice, the breakfast was nice, the toilet was nice, the room was cozy, the view outside my balcony was the Gunung Merapi (really with smoke coming out!)... probably the only sad thing was the bbcnews on tv that I tuned in to daily, with news of China flooding filling the air. I don't know what happened in Malaysia. There's no English newspaper to browse. Didn't catch any football matches.

Wait... I noticed MTV Asia Awards coming to "M" Malaysia? HELLO!?! When did that happened? Ok its coming soon in August? Sponsored by Tourism Malaysia? MALAYSIA?!?! I wanna go! I wanna go! *make aspiration*

The one thing I did or I took home from this amazing travel, was 'making aspiration' and be thankful for the people I have whom I love and love me. Sis. Julie said "if you dont make aspiration, you won't be able to make it!" *we were indulging in our 5-star-hotel morning breakfast as we contemplate on people couldn't be with us on this trip & how we managed to visit Europe at the certain age that you wanted to*

What you want to be, where you want to go... make aspiration. Well... for this 'pilgrimage trip', it was easy to make spiritual aspiration too.. like want to attain the state of "Enlightened Mind". *fuiyoh... since when I last aspired to want to reach Nirvana?!*

But I really did chanted the englishy mantra.... something something attain "Enlightened Mind"... as I read it, I really tried to mean it... like whoaah.... imagine if I attained the "Enlightened Mind".

That's all for now... you'll know where to see my pictures ;)

I love my Mulu trip alot...

[warning] probably wont finish writing this in one sitting its gonna be 1am and im sleepy already... brrr.. maybe i shall just use the fotopages to explain all the pictures and story behind it.. rather than using lotsa words to describe...

Maybe I could just give rating ::

Miri - 5.8/10
Mulu - 10/10
Brunei - 1/10

For sayang he said ::

Miri - 5.8/10
Mulu - 7/10
Brunei - 7/10

And then i go WHAT?!? Brunei so high score?! Ok the only reason why I gave in to the idea of even going to Brunei is because sayang wanted to go 'just because' and because we have a driver who so willing to drive us into Brunei for a day trip and back! Its like driving to Melaka for the day and come back. Ok I'm not really a car person... not a mosque person... not really a 'just because' person... so I was not so excited abt Brunei...

BUT I'm so so so so overwhelmed with the caves in Mulu - world heritage site. I wouldn't go again because of all the tiring walks... but it was worth experiencing it once in a life time. The Garden of Eden was OH-MI-GGGGGG! The experience talking to the Penan guide abt my age was interesting. The meetup with an MPO cellist on the same trip was fun! The longboat journey was exciting (remind me of my white water rafting the week before). The beauty of Sarawak rainforest & nature -- breathtaking.

In total we walked for more than 20KM in 1.5 days! The millions of bats fly-swirling in snakey formation in the twillight sky -- so unique!

What was there in Brunei that was worth shouting for? Like errr.... non. Oh well maybe 'yay we found a Seng Gong temple in the heard of Bdr Seri Begawan!' hahaha. (ok sayang have this great affinity with Seng Gong *respect respect*). Of all the chinese or buddhist temple in BSB, there was only one, and its not exactly Buddhist temple its Seng Gong temple!

Miri -- the best shout out -- AYSL -- my sun sch buddy. She's the reason of Miri. Miri wouldn't be Miri without AYSL! We were given nickname "Mulu maid" by her... because we helped her to clean her teacher-quarters-flat while she was teaching in school (after we came back from Mulu). So she's the madam, we're the Mulu maids... mam brought us around the whole town, virtually visiting every chinesey-buddhisty places. Best of all trying all the Miri-only makan! I think AYSL is already transformed into a Sarawakian from the way she speak her Malay!

So that's about the round up of my amazing Miri-Mulu-Brunei trip ;) Anybody who knows AYSL should go visit her before she gets transferred back to peninsula!

X'mas in Spore, oral surgery, Happy New Year!

When pictures paint a thousand words, I don't have to write so much. The past week has been really eventful, from missing out on the 15NOW concert just to show face at a big coconutsteamboat family reunion, to taking the bus alone from Pudu at midnight and getting down at Skudai 3am in the morning, to celebrating x'mas with sayang's family in Spore in the most Christmassy way.

X'mas eve, I used imeem to play Christmas jingles through out the night from the brother's desktop. The lights were dimmed, turkey & ham were served in most generous portion, champagne were served before and after dinner! I said, "didn't we forget to say grace?" Then everyone looked at each other... "Amituofo!"

I enjoy the company and the warm cosy feel more than the food because it was very meaty! Maybe it was the very hearty western meal for lunch, treated by myee's friend in Spore. They brought us to Miss Clarity Cafe that even have their own website! If there's one cafe here so colourful and 'girlie' I'd definitely bring my 15-year-old and 12-year-old cousin sisters! It seems every Western joint we went, there'd be Chocolaty dessert! In one short trip, I didn't have to pay for any meal at all... and get to eat what I like to eat!

What I'm most thankful for is the opportunity to visit the Nalanda Trial exhibition in the Asian Civilization Museum for free! And there was a special Buddhist guided tour by this gentleman who spoke with so 'englishy' accent but good in Chinese as well! Usually museum visit is boring to me... but this is so different! Maybe of my interest in learning Buddhist history and culture... at the room where I first saw the Buddha's relic... it just dawned on me, that's BUDDHA's RELIC?? THE BUDDHA??! (ok at this point, I thought it was the first time I saw the Buddha's relic) You know the 'rapture' feeling? Tears just trickle down... *what?! you're crying?! in public?! no no you gotta be kidding quick control!!*

I'm not sure how to explain this feeling, its like there's a strong energy or aura in the room. According to sayang, he said he could sense that there were many devas in the room! :P Anyway, moving on... we bought the souvenir book of this Nalanda Trail exhibition at $37++! Even the handbag bought at Robinson was much cheaper ler...

Alright so back to Malaysia... another xmas party with the starbugz gang on boxing day before I go on mc leave for my minor oral surgery. Gift exchange was so funny thanks to Sue's crazy idea -- you get to unwrap your gift infront of everyone and the next person gets to snatch your gift if he/she likes it! Errr... very confusing to explain to anyone. I feel sorry for snatching SF's mug... but hey it was aaron who snatched my nice porcelain tea set woh! Saved the best for last.. sayang got to unwrap the last gift (sort of least attractive present)... and aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh I want! :D Nvm surely he'll bring me along for it -- HarganDaz icecream voucher!

OK OK... now here's what I really wanna write about -- my wisdom tooth surgery. Everybody was telling me how painful it will be, and yes I've been for my first oral surgery at UPM and it was excruciatingly painful! But, I dunno if its the dentist experience or my prayer before leaving the house... the surgery was pretty smooth, the only pain was the one second anaesthetic shot and that's it! Until now, I don't feel any pain! How could this be?! Then I remember Datuk telling this to Alex Tan "you don't feel pain because you got no anger!" LOL :D

How true is this statement? I hope some one else can verify for me, that its the dentist or is it the prayer?

Happy New Year 2008 to all my friends! If you believe, let's pray or make your personal aspiration for the new year, and if you ask & believe *like attracts like* -- it will happen.

Have a merry sinful xmas!

I had such a fantastic time in Singapore for the xmas holiday, I wish to quickly blog it down before I forget. Esp on the food that I get to eat every meal. Felt so 'sinful' to be able to have so much good food to eat and its all not even with my own money!

Anyway, I'll not take too much time today as it's the only day in the week that I'll be working. Thursday I'll go for my 2nd time in my life wisdom-tooth-surgery. So all the feasting will finally end tonight, with my last round of coconutsteamboat xmas dinner before I go on my numb-spell for the rest of year...

Well, watch out for my fotopages or even story that I'll post in incovar blog!

Just a simple trip to Perhentian…

Pulau Perhentian was such a beautiful place. Its hard not to compare Perhentian with Redang… actually both are equally beautiful. I can’t pick which island is better judging from the scenery, but base on Marine Park definitely the underwater world in Redang was better. But it was in Perhentian, that I saw 2 big turtles in the sea! It was also more relaxing in Perhentian, with virtually nothing much to do. We only had 2 snorkelling trips but it was surely worth it to do nothing on the 2nd day afternoon.

It must be an interesting sight of my fatty body wrapped with purple swimming suit lying on the beach with 2 gal friends beside me, beneath the shades of a tall tree. I guess one of the best thing about this place, maybe it’s the Western culture, is that nobody bother what you’re doing. There were many Caucasians sun bathing on the beach, every white female would be clad with only bikinis. It was quite like holidaying in a foreign land with such blazing hot sunshine, clear blue sea water, calming sounds of the sea waves…

Wish to show you some of the pictures at my fotopages.. I was trying to mess around with what Bighugelabs can do. Thought I was so stupid to not know how to use a Mosaic Maker, anyway, my friend got nice(r) shots at her site! *I'll admit that some of my pictures suck... a compact nikon can deliver just as great wonder as a bulky S2, thanks to the camera's best friend - the sun*

A simple enjoyable trip aside, the most unforeseeable thing happened at the end... you wont believe it! I've helped to edit the complaint letter to AirAsia, I doubt we'd get back the refund of the MAS airfare that we had to miserably fork out for our return to KL :( A lesson learnt when dealing with AirAsia... always always check your flight schedule!!! Here goes..

RE: BOOKING NO.: AWS8CI
With reference to the above flight booking through your website with the following itinerary: -
Flight Departure Arrival
AK6334 KLIA-LCC Terminal Kuala Terengganu
0715 Thu 14 Jun 2007 0805 Thu 14 Jun 2007

AK6337 Kuala Terengganu KLIA-LCC Terminal
2120 Sat 16 Jun 2007 2210 Sat 16 Jun 2007

We regret to inform that the rescheduling of flight AK6337 time to 1815 hour was oblivious to us, hence we missed the flight departing from the isolated Kuala Terengganu airport to Kuala Lumpur. The failed attempt in trying to contact my mobile number on the night before departure is deemed unprofessional.

We were not the only group stranded by the change of schedule; there was another Japanese couple who faced the same situation as us. Surely being foreigners on holiday in Malaysia, the sudden change of flight time is most unforeseeable for them; they even had a connecting flight back to Japan at 1am from Kuala Lumpur. We (including the Japanese couple) had no other feasible alternative but to purchase must costlier MAS flight ticket back to KL on the same evening. The allowance for us to board the next AirAsia departure flight to KL at the next day 0820 hour is not practical or possible.

It is clearly unreasonable for your well-establish company to reschedule flight time at the eleventh hour. You should inform us earlier of the change of time. If passengers can book your flight more than six months in advance, your management should be able to inform us at least one week ahead! Or at the very least, you could have informed us during check-in at KLIA-LCCT before boarding the flight. A simple gesture that could have saved us a hefty sum of penalty was surely overlooked.

With this letter, we would like to seek for compensation for the extra cost incurred to us in returning from KT to KL, amounting to RM1960.00, deduced from MAS flight charge of RM245 for eight people. Attached herewith the receipt of the MAS flight tickets for your perusal.

Looking forward to your positive reply as soon as possible.

My Uniquely Singapore trip!

Order of the food that I liked best during my short trip :-

The best food :: South Indian cuisine at Little India (there was this sensuously irresistible Phorata with 'dal' & 'vege' gravy... then there's the Poori, the Thosai, the Vade... simply heavenly satisfying!).

The good one :: Taufufah & siu long bao (小龙包) at a shop in Geylang that opens 24 hour (after the Phantom of the Opera show, the bigbro brought us for this delicious supper *luckily Karaoke was fullhouse on Saturday night*, dunno why bigbro & ahsoh so into Karaoke?!)

The yummy one :: Reverso flavoured ice cream at Island Creamery in Serene Centre in somewhere in Bukit Timah. (looks like Rocky Road.. you know basically essentially chocolate icrecream *drooling*)

There's somemore food that we tried, mostly nice maybe 'cause those Malaysians-living-in-Singapore purposely took us to taste what's considered the nicest food around. Even the homecooked meals prepared by the bigbro & ahsoh, were supreme! *sounds like shoe-polishing your boyfriend's bigbro & ah soh, but I memang enjoy Western-style food ma... and the only Chinese meal ah soh prepared had my all-time-favourite fish.. doh*

So what about the nicest experience I had in this short trip? *but when there's nothing better to do on the 3rd day, you'll feel like going home already!*

1st : I LOVE THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA the musical held inside the Esplanade *durian* theatre. The 4 of us sat sooo high up at the top *2nd last row* but we were right smack in the centre, with the view of the chandelier magnificently dangling infront of you! *it magically moves* If I was a kid, I would be so amazed and enthralled with the 'magic' of the stage performance but now that I'm clever enough, we know that technology and engineering is behind the 'magic'. In fact I was still wondering, how the actors/actresses voices can be heard SOOO loudly (mind you crystal clear), *got mic mah* Oh....

Confession, I did doze off after the intermission.. it was not one of my fave songs part, and I was dead tired for my 1st day in SG! Sayang on my left side was so taken aback with the grand stage, my 2 buddies on my right were so excited/sampat about the musical *oh lets watch My Fair Lady when we get back! And they actually bought the PROGRAMME BOOK at S$25?!!!*

2nd : Spending time with sayang *alone.. ahem ahem... wrong blog :P*

3rd : Taking pictures tonza pictures!! You know what, I managed to capture with 'depth of field' skill... that was sei mei... I was at this Methodist church for a wedding ceremony, where I was seated at the back, by the side of the aisle, I had to try to shoot those pro shots... *what with the setting of the aisle, flowers, wedding couple infront*

*check out MJphotos for weddings*

4th : Must be eating nice food as shared in the above. I'm still not sick of CHOCOLATE ice cream!

So what else I did, specially just because I was in Singapore... *where my ancestor came from before coming from China..doh..*

I was glad that I made it to meet my grand aunty, 94 years of age, living with her 2 spinster daughters (both in their 70's), who don't know who am I! She's already senile *ignorance is bliss*. Maybe if I can speak better Teo-chew that way, I can try to explain slowly to her, how I'm related to her... but my Teo-chew language is like "Le jiak ba buei?" which she replied "buei". errrmmm.... that's about it the conversation I can do in Teo-chew.

The only aunty that could talk to us (in fluent English) was Aunty Alice, who's a very lone ranger, who was sharing about her boring life story to us. I didn't even introduce sayang to her... mr. PR sayang started crapping nonstop with my aunty... aunty Alice must be really happy inside to have somebody to talk to, after caging themselves in the enclosed house for so long! It really felt like we were visiting an old folks home.

Also in Singapore, I guess 'law of attraction' made me & sayang bought the 7pm bus ticket back on Monday, because of SzTyn my friend who HAD to meet me by hook or by crook, to use me / to hand me her passport to her KL travel agent for visa application arrangement. On Monday, what was supposed to be a 2pm-ish meeting, end up to a 4pm-ish meetup in Raffles Place which was such a hurry, I barely get to chat with her.. and we had to head off to HouGang to collect our luggage, then take a taxi to BeachRoad where our bus is already waiting for us.

I didn't realize how tired I was, once I got on the bus, I remembered seeing this enchanting view overlooking the cityskyline with the beautiful sunset in the backdrop when the bus was crossing over this bridge..*grasp* Then I doze off quite immediately and slept through the journey until KL!

Oh and because we were in Singapore... the people we meet drives BMW 3 series. I don't really know how cheap it is... but hello?! Everyone back home drives Proton or Kancil or at most City or Vios nia....

At the end of the trip, I guess I know why my cousin bro is hoping to get a job in SG, why SzTyn chose to work in SG instead of JB, why there's so many people we know who are working in SG. Yet, I think it's quite boring as life seems so predictable, mundane, routine.. and small.

But I'll most probably come back again.. to continue using the EZLink card, so convenient! Yes, and I want my parents to come visit my grandaunty, as I kinda FORGOT to take a picture with them to show my parents to see how 'old' she had grown. It is like an omen that I shouldn't take a picture with them, so that my parents WILL eventually make a trip down SG to visit them for real, and not just see them in the picture.. and then *choi* get news that they'd gone! *choi*

(fotopages will be updated... as soon as I've sort out and resize it! )