The life that starts from 28 Nov on a certain year

07 March 2009 - Day 1 of Nepal Trip

2009-03-07T23:59:00.000+08:00

Reaching the airport at about 6.30am. Looked for our row to check-in, to find that our row is actually full of people queuing. Was told by one of the staff that we are also able to check-in in another row serving Singapore Airline passengers. After checking-in, we went into the departure hall to eat our breakfast and just waiting around for our flight.
Ate our breakfast at O'Briens. Expensive, but everything else in the departure hall is expensive too. After that, we walked around the place taking photos of whatever we think is nice...

Time to aboard the plane. We were not given the window seat... *shit* forgotten to ask for window seat! Throughout the whole journey it's just boring. Unable to look out of the window, the show showing on the tv is repeating itself. Toilet long queue...

Some "high class" english speaking ppl kept walking about in the plane talking to diff ppl. Mostly talking to foreigner. Holding wine and talking very loudly. One of them kept asking why is he not allowed to bring his guitar on board. The staff tried to explain to him why is he not allowed to bring the guitar up, and replied that they will bring to the attention of the managment regarding this. The 'high class' man shouted loudly, trying to show that he is the boss, saying that he will bring the matter to the press. I mean, guitar is actually beyond the limit of the size that can carry on board. Bring the press into the picture for wat? No brain ppl trying to act big... Overall i think silk air is very much better than the other budget airline which didn't give us food and drinks, and we need to purchase them ourselves.

Lunch time...
We are allowed to go into the cockpit to take photos with the pilot. We have never been in the cockpit before... and it's a eye opener!

We also took photos with some of the staffs on board...

Reached at Kathmandu International Airport. Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal. Hmm, it's definitely different from Singapore Airport. We are required to take a shuttle bus from the plane to airport. But everything is still smooth till now.

We paid for our airport tax and stepped into Nepal for the first time. Met up with the Nepal representative. He drove us to another airport, the Domestic airport. After filling up our forms and gave us our air ticket, he see us off at the airport gate.

We are taking Agni Air to Pokhari.

The flight is supposed to be 3pm. But it delayed till 5pm. We waited in the airport for 2 hours with no drinks and food. Actually there are shops selling food and drinks, but we dont know if it's safe a not, so we didnt buy nething.

Finally, our plane is here.... Same thing, we gotta take a shuttle bus to the plane. When we reached the plane, it's still not ready for boarding. We gotta queue up to wait for the plane to be ready.

On the domestic flight to Pokhara...
There's only one air stewestress on the plane. Before it takes off, the air stew gave out sweets
and cotton wool. We were very curious by the cotton wool been given out. Ate the sweet and hold onto the cotton wool for further instruction.

When we alighted from the plane, we asked one of the passenger about cotton wool. She was surprised that we dont know about it. It's actually for us to put in our ears when we are in the plane, because the plane is very noisy.

Reached Pakhara at last!

A Nepalese waited for us at the airport to drive us to our hotel. On the way to the hotel, we saw a lot of cow scrolling along the road...

Everywhere is filled with dirt, mud, stones and cow poo. We got to walk with caution not to step on it. We thought we will be brought to some cheap hotel but the driver stopped at a hotel that is quite new and nice... The Hotel Marahi...

After settling down, we went out for dinner... Becos of the messiness of the surrounding, we were very confused once we stepped out of the hotel. We went to a nearby departmental store to buy some stuff to eat for supper. For dinner, we went to the restaurant in the hotel. We ate the buffet. It's RP$1000. which is abt SGD$20. We were so tired that we only ate one round. Not worth it at all! Went back to the hotel room to pack to get ready for the next day. We will be going trekking on the next day, lots of energy will be needed. We slept very early today... Oh ya, the timing is abt 2.25 hours before Singapore time.

19 Jan 2009 - Rope Skipping Training 1

2009-01-19T19:13:00.003+08:00

Mission today : 200 jumps

Total Hrs : 1.37.89mins
Avg HR : 136
Minimum HR : 108
Highest HR : 155
Total Calorie : 11
Duration in Zone (154 - 174) : 0.2 mins (2%)

Try rope skipping today.
Did 200 jumps.
It's a breeze. But of course the body part issue that make it hard to continue more.
It's ok... But at least it's a good start.
2% in zone. Hmm, should be able to do better.

Working toward being able to do 3 times... Running, Climbing stairs & Skipping one after another.
Jia Yu Ba !

19 Jan 2009 - Running Training (Week 5, 1)

2009-01-19T19:00:00.002+08:00

Mission today : 1 minute, then walk 1 minutes. Total timing 20 mins (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

After warm up, 1 minute of run & then walk 1 minute for 4 sets, warming down after that.

Total Hrs : 10.09mins (excluding warm up and warm down)
Avg HR : 148
Minimum HR : 99
Highest HR : 240
Total Calorie : 86
Duration in Zone (154 - 174) : 4.28 mins (44% in zone)

Actually wanted to run 10 sets today. But can only do 4 sets because of some problems with my body parts. Haiz.

6 Jan 09 - Running Training (Week 4, 1)

2009-01-06T19:02:00.003+08:00

Mission today : 1 minute, then walk 1 minutes. Total timing 24-26min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

After warm up, 1 minute of run & then walk 1 minute for 8 sets, warming down after that.

Total Hrs : 16.46mins (excluding warm up and warm down)
Avg HR : 151
Minimum HR : 100
Highest HR : 203
Total Calorie : 148
Duration in Zone (154 - 174) : 7.18 mins

Wow... 1 minute of run is so tiring... but after my 2nd set, it feels better. Not so tough as I thought. Maybe is because of the 1 minute walk after every run.

But the duration will also increase to 27-29 minutes.

4 Jan 09 - National Spaghetti Day

2009-01-04T16:38:00.003+08:00

Today is National Spaghetti Day.

My boyfriend & I went to the supermarket to buy all the things needed to do Spaghetti. Came home and started cooking. As it has been a long time after I last cooked Spaghetti, I has already forgotten how to cook. Luckily he still remember the steps. The dish includes Spaghetti, button mushroom, onion & garlic spaghetti sauce, onion & garlic.

We had it for lunch and it's very filling. I can't even finish mine.

Wow... such a simple and no ingredient dish actually costed us $17.
Left with half a packet of spaghetti and 1/4 bottle of sauce.
Is it worth it to spend the national spaghetti day eating spaghetti, I must still say, Yes, it's worth it!
People in another countries may be eating Spaghetti together with me too.
Or maybe I'm the only one in the world that knows today is National Spaghetti Day. :P

HAPPY NATIONAL SPAGHETTI DAY !!!

2 Jan 09 - Training Week 3, 3

2009-01-02T19:17:00.002+08:00

Mission today : 30 seconds, then walk 1 minutes. Total timing 24-26min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

After warm up, 30 seconds of run & then walk 1 min for 11 sets, warming down after that.

Total Hrs : 17mins (excluding warm up and warm down)
Avg HR : 142
Minimum HR : 96
Highest HR : 190
Total Calorie : 139
Duration in Zone (154 - 174) : 3.58 mins

Today I don't feel as uncomfortable as the previous run, but I slowed down after my 4 set due to tiredness on my leg.

For the next training on Monday, I think I'm ready to increase my run timing to 1 mins, walk 1 minute. But the duration will also increase to 27-29 minutes.

31122008 - New Year Resolution for 2009

2008-12-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Wow... so fast 2008 finishing liao.

Neway, every new year eve is just the same. Is it really necessary to go through all the trouble to get to very crowded places to count down? Does it mean that the year will be better? I dont tink so... I just want to cross over to the next year quiety and peacefully.

Another few more hour will be 2009. Have to start thinking of my new year resolution.

Hmm, next year resolution will be :

1) Reach summit of Mt Kinabalu

2) Continue running at least 3 times a day

3) Learn the following new things this year:
i) Morse Code
ii) Sign Language
iii) Roller Blade
and another 2 others

4) Read up abt psychology and understand

5) Read and finish at least 5 non-friction books

My wish for next year is to have no war in the whole world. But this is not up to me to decide. I can just hope and pray for World Peace.

31 Dec 2008 - Training Week 3, 2

2008-12-31T18:30:00.002+08:00

Mission today : 30 seconds, then walk 1 minutes. Total timing 21-23min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

After warm up, 30 seconds of run & then walk 1 min for 9 sets, warming down after that.

Total Hrs : 35mins (including warm up & warm down)
Avg HR : 119
Minimum HR : 74
Highest HR : 167
Total Calorie : 198

Very uncomfortable after each 1 min run, maybe because I'm still not used to running.

For the next training on Friday, I will maintain at 30 seconds, walk 1 minutes. But the duration will increase to 24-26 minutes.

29 Dec 2008 - Week 3,1

2008-12-29T21:27:00.002+08:00

Continue training after a long rest.

Mission today : 20 seconds, then walk 1 minutes Total Timing 19-21min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

5 mins of warming up, then 20 seconds of run & then walk 1 min for 9 sets, lastly warming down for 5 mins.

Avg HR : 102
Minimum HR : 81
Highest HR : 121

Next training will be on Wednesday. Will increase to 30 seconds, then walk 1 minutes for the next training. But the duration will increase to 21-23 minutes.

17 Dec 2008 - Week 2,2

2008-12-17T18:59:00.002+08:00

Mission this week : 20 seconds, then walk 1 minutes

Mission today : Total Timing 17-19min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

5 mins of warming up, then 20 seconds of run & then walk 1 min for 7 sets, lastly warming down for 5 mins.

Weather today is nice! No rain and not very warm.

Next training will be on Sunday as Friday I have department christmas dinner and Saturday I'm going Malaysia. Will maintain 20 seconds, then walk 1 minutes for the next training. But the duration will increase to 19-21 minutes.

15 Dec 2008 - Back to training for my week 2

2008-12-15T23:59:00.000+08:00

Mission this week : 5-15 seconds, then walk 1-2 minutes

Mission today : Total Timing 15-18 min (including 5 mins of warming up and 5 mins of warming down)

What I did was 5 mins of warming up, then 15 seconds of run & then walk 1 min for 7 sets, lastly warming down for 5 mins. But when I'm warming down, there's a sudden downpour. I ran to my void deck to avoid the rain. So I actually run more than I'm suppose to today. Downpour really make me run faster and don't really feel tired when running. But really hope that the next training ,on Wednesday, won't be raining if not I have to postpone again.

Didn't buy a t-shirt after my 1st week of training. My boyfriend's mother gave me her standard charter run's t-shirt as it's too big for her. So I save on a t-shirt. :P

13 Dec 2008 - Jump Training Manual

2008-12-13T09:54:00.006+08:00

Read a blog on Jump Training from my iGoogle. Just to share with you.

Most of the sports like Tennis, Basketball, Baseball, Football, Soccer, Racquetball, Volleyball, Track, Wrestling, Squash...these all have a common theme in that one has to utilize some sort of 'jump' movement to excel at them. Jumping is an essential part of so many sports, so let's learn how to do it a little better.

To practice jumping, begin by jumping in place from a squat, exploding from your lower body to push you up, then (most importantly) landing in a squat. When you land again in a squat you prevent intense impact on the joints of your lower body, especially your knees. Once you get comfortable with that, begin jumping onto steps or platforms, making sure that you are clear of others. Once you become comfortable jumping up, also jump down, still landing in a squat. Quickly you will notice much more explosive strength in your legs allowing you to: jump higher, get lift quicker, sprint faster, accelerate quicker and perform better in sports.

Lastly, some people will say that working on jumping vertically will decrease your ability to sprint faster. That is just stupid, because the beginning of a sprint is a forward jump (but since your leaning over, it's actually vertical). How about this - to put that silly rumor to rest, try it on yourself. Go sprint and time yourself today, then practice jumping vertically for 3-4 weeks, and then sprint again. If your time doesn't improve, then you are a liar because you did not practice jumping for those 3-4 weeks.

6 Dec 2008 - First time view flat

2008-12-06T23:59:00.001+08:00

We were quite excited today, cos we are going to view flat. Told the agent that we are looking for a 4-room flat and the requirements.

We meet them at Bishan and view our first flat. The first flat is on the 2nd level, which is actually not wat we wanted. We wanted higher level. But the agent explained that this flat is juz for us to see the condition and stuff like tt.

Next we move on to a flat at AMK. Wow, dis flat is so horrible! There's like more than 10 tenants staying in the flat and it's in very bad condition. And the smell of it when we step into the house will be unforgettable. The owner of the house is asking for quite a lot of cash to cover his lost, but err... dont tink he will be able to make it if the tenants are still staying there.

Next will be another AMK flat. This one is the best among what we have seen today. Top level, minimum fixed cupboards and quite big space. But the owner is quite impolite. We will be KIV'ing this flat but will look around first.

Next we went to another AMK flat. This one is nearer to MRT station. It's actually quite ok, but the entrance to the kitchen is like... err funny! Neway, clean hse. No one staying there already. But it really needs major renovation. Owner is asking for low cash so it's still quite ok.

End of the viewing, we were both so tired!

But we still went to Expo to look at some fitness sales. I bought a Polar Heart Beat Monitor Watch. :P Actually aimed to buy it after 3 weeks of training, but it's on offer, so i juz bought it first. It's $199. Quite worth it.

After buying, we went to airport. Have a craving for KFC, we tot airport got KFC, but actually dont hv. At last, we ate Burger King and when home by MRT.

Very sleepy and tired! More house viewing tomorrow with another agent.

3 Dec 2008 - The second run

2008-12-03T21:10:00.003+08:00

Two days after my first run, it's my workout day again. I have recovered from my first day, so I can repeat the same routine as the first time, but will extend the length by 5 minutes.

I started by walking 5 minutes to do warm up.
Then an alternate 30 seconds of running with 60 seconds of walking for about 15 minutes.
Lastly the warm down by walking slowly for 5 minutes.

Today I feel my heart beating very fast...
Probably I should just follow the instruction from the book.

Next training will be on Friday and the last training of the week before I can buy an exercise outfit. :D

1 Dec 2008 - The first run

2008-12-01T19:10:00.003+08:00

According to the book, Women's Complete Guide for Running, my first run should be like :

5 mins show walk as a warm up;
then, 10 mins walking with short running segments,
then 10 mins of walking as a "warm down".

Coming back to work at 6.15pm, changed to a light, comfortable clothes & a comfortable pair of running shoes, I started my first run.

Walked for 5 mins, very slowly, to the Bishan Active as warm up.
After that, did a alternate running with walking segment...
but I did the counting by the number of steps I take.
Firstly a 10 steps run, then 60 steps walk, then a 40 steps run, then 60 steps walk, then a 100 steps run.
After that, I did a 10 mins warm down.

According to the book, I have to reward myself once in a while...
Hmm... so i have planned reward myself with the following:

Finishing my first week of training, I will reward myself with a exercise outfit.
Finishing my third week of training, I will reward myself with a watch. Probably one with stopwatch, and will be able to beep at the beginning and end of a run segment, and can read my heart beat. Hmm, tink will be quite expensive. But neway, I shld be getting my bonus by then. :P

Wednesday will be my second run...

29112008 - Guides Gathering

2008-11-29T23:59:00.000+08:00

Today is the day of the Guides Gathering. A gathering that we set aside a day from last year. :D Every year we will have a gathering to meet up with some of the guiding leaders.

This year, we have it at Suki Sushi @ AMK. They got me presents and a birthday cake... cos it's near to my birthday. :P As Lei, Ping & Juan's birthday are also around the same date as me, we blowed and cut the cake together...
CheeSiang's birthday is also near to mine, but he's too busy taking photo. :P

Present presentation ...

My boyfriend and I...

During dinner, we chatted about almost everything... From Bangkok demonstration to a TV programme on U channel and what happen to us for the past 1 year and events that have gone through together. Some memorizes, I have already forgotten. Gathering is for me to refresh my memory. Old liao... memorize getting more and more unclear liao. :(

After dinner, Ping suggested to go sing K, but as there's no suitable place to go for it, we decided to go to the Mac beside the AMK South Park to sit and continue chatting...

After that, it's time for the annual photo taking session!

Time flies when we are hving fun. Very fast, the day ended liao. :(

These are the presents I got from my guiding friends.

28112008 - My Birthday

2008-11-28T23:59:00.001+08:00

My boyfriend and I were together when it crossed over to my birthday. He's the first person to wish me Happy Birthday. :D

2nd : Some number that I reply to ask who, but didn't reply back
3rd : Sophia
4th : Janine
5th : Xiao Lei
6th : Jasmine Tong
7th : Maggie Lye
8th : Sharon Tan
9th : Song Bee
10th : Song Ling
11th : Xiao Si
12th : Bel
13th : Lynn Yap
14th : Yiling
15th : Verity
16th : Dawn
17th : Carrie Ng
18th : Yiting
19th : Mei Qi
20th : Hui Juan

For this year's birthday, I just wanna be at home relaxing...

Late afternoon, we went to Sizzler for dinner. :D Sizzler is my favourite restaurant. Cos got salad bar that I can eat salad and soup and fruits, unlimited.

After that we went shopping for a white shoes for work. My old one already spoil until always kana say by my colleague liao. It's time to change a new one. Got a new pair.

After that, went home cos both of us is very tired already.

My birthday is always not very interesting. I like it smooth and relaxing and spending with the one I love the whole day.

27112008 - Birthday Present from colleagues

2008-11-27T13:54:00.006+08:00

Today is the eve of my birthday, and half day leave at work.

A few months back, some of my department colleagues actually asked me what do I want for my birthday. I replied that I wanted Sincerity (xing yi). Think they have been cracking their brain what does it mean by that...

Today I was given the presents...
The following are those who contributed to it:

Tony Heng
Simon Poh
Melvin Ong
Thomas Ang
Sally Mei
Lim Soo Chee
Jasmine Tong
Tan Mui Jin
Carrie Ng
Lynn Yap
Melissa Poh
Michelle Yeo
Maggie Lye
Jolyn Seah

These are what I'm given...

2 bath towels,
2 face towels,
1 dark circles gone eye masks,
a bottle of strawberry shower gel,
a bottle of Strawberry Body Butter,
a bag,
a Cadbury dream real white chocolate (not in the pic, as I finished eating liao :P)
an ang bao

Items on the list are not anyhow picked just because it's cheap, there's a story behind every items that only sincerely close friends who listen and observe will be able to know that I needed it... except for the dark circle gone eye mask that the whole world should be able to tell that I badly needed. :P

Thanks to all that have contributed to buy these items.

22112008 - Achieved my new record in Swimming

2008-11-22T18:43:00.002+08:00

Reached the swimming pool at about 11am. Drag drag a bit, trying to overcome the coldness of the water.
Planned to swim 15 laps today.

Started at about 11.10am.
Finished at about 11.40am.
Took 30 minutes. Which is about 2 mins / lap.

Hmm, compared to the previous time i swim (25 mins for 10 laps = 2.5mins / lap), i told 0.5mins faster per lap this time. Yeah! Improve liao!

Next training will be tomorrow (23.11.2008). Stairs climbing up and down 11 stories at my block. Planned to do 6 sets.

Next swimming training will be next Saturday or Sunday (30.11.2008). 20 laps.

I must tell myself to follow what i planned, if not how am i going to get to the summit of Mt KK next year... It's all about determination again.

21112008 - Year going to end soon

2008-11-21T23:59:00.000+08:00

Oh well, it's already end of November and it's time for me to see if i achieved anything i planned for this year. The new year resolution is as followed:

1) Learn to be patient.
2) Not to be careless with my work.
3) Provide more love and concern to him
4) Learn 5 things new in the new year
5) Get a new house of our own
6) Be able to love myself more

So have i achieve them?

1) Learn to be patient
I must say yes, I have achieve it. But still need improvement. :)

2) Not to be careless with my work
This one, hmm... not really :( Still quite careless with my work. But I have learned to check for my mistakes and make sure there's no mistake before i submit my work. People at work is still very nice and giving me chance when I made mistake. But I can't always be depending on their patient. I will have to continue to improve on that. This really need more time to be achieved.

3) Provide more love and concern to him
Hmm, I don't really know if I've provided him with more love and concern. (Him means my boyfriend.) I am sure trying my very best to be show concern whenever he needs. I feel that it all comes from my heart! I will continue to listen to my heart and try to make my ego work a bit lesser.

4) Learn 5 things new in the new year
Wow... how come I made this one of my new year resolution last year. 5 times is a lot leh. Hmm, let me think what have i learnt dis year. Oh...

a) I have learnt about Confucius. Read up & watched a few videos on he said and do thousand years ago. Although I'm still no expert, it should still be considered a new thing that I have learnt.

b) Zang Zi studies. Another china ancient person. Watched a few videos on what he said and do thousand years ago. I'm still learning and trying to relate whatever he say to the world today.

c) Learning about how to keep myself warm in a very cold place. Climbed Mt KK this year. The way up to the summit is less than 9 degree. Although I didn't reach the summit, I have learnt something on the way up

... like nothing already. Never mind, i still have 1 more month to learn 2 more things.

5) Get a new house of our own
Nope :( I don't think I'm able to achieve this this year. But we are still trying very hard to get one next year.

6) Be able to love myself more
I do feel that I have learn to love myself more. Learning to care for myself. Not harming myself just to please someone. This year I started to pamper myself a bit and it really make me feel happy and relax.

---

So I still have a few things that I have not achieved. I still have 1 more month to achieve it. Jia yu ba! :D Will review these again at the end of the December.

20112008 - Failed the 1st attempt of jogging training

2008-11-20T23:59:00.000+08:00

I reached home at about 5.45pm today. Very early. But I forgotten to bring my key. Luckily caught my dad on the way to the lift lobby. Got the key from him and went home.

Have not been exercising for the past few days. Gotta work after office hour to finish wat i need to. So today is the only day I can go for exercising.

Bishan Active is very crowded today. Kids and old folks walking around...

Walked around Bishan Active and hope to find somewhere that I can jog. But everywhere is just so crowded. I started running when i reach the 1/2 way mark of the perimeter. But when i reached the starting part, it's crowded again. I finally gave up jogging.

I climbed up to my house. 11 stories.

Anyway, I planned to go swimming on Saturday (22/11/2008). This time, 15 laps. I must not be lazy this time cos I have not been exercising for the past one week. :( *sad*

16112008 - Carrot Cake Conversations

2008-11-16T22:52:00.004+08:00

Today is juz another Sunday except for the evening. We went for a movie at Marina Square with my parents and their friends. Watched Carrot Cake Conversations.

Hmm, wat to say abt the movie? It's very slow. The movie has a message that they want to send out to whoever watching the movie. But it's up to individual how they interpret it. I personally feel that it's trying to tell us not to keep living in the usual pattern. I mean, in life, from young we have been told wat we should or should not do. Wat is good and wat is bad for life. Parents or elders will tell us, if you are a doctor or lawyer, you are considered successful. If you are hawker or taxi driver, you are failure. But wat makes them a failure? They are also trying to work for money. In life, too much things is being planned for us from the day we appear in this world. Cant we just make our own discussion and not feel gulity or think what will others feel about it?

My dream is to travel around the world. Earning watever I need when i need it. Do whatever I can just for the aim of continue traveling to watever places I want to. I can even wash plates or be a waitress in a restuarant. Anyway, it's just temporary. Once I got wat I need to continue traveling, i will quit and go.

But will my dreams come true? I dont tink so...

15112008 - 2nd training to be physically healthy

2008-11-15T12:24:00.002+08:00

I did not go for training yesterday as I have something else to do.
But at least I postponed it to the next day, which is today!
I reach my boyfriend's house at about 11am. Started swimming wearing my new swimming costume.
Planned to do 10 laps today.

Started at about 11.05pm.
Finished at about 11.30pm.
Took 25 minutes. Is it ok? Hmm, should be ok la. Will aim to swim faster the next round.

... Next training on tomorrow (16.11.2008) running at Bishan Active. 3 Round.

12112008 - A start for being healthy physically

2008-11-12T23:59:00.001+08:00

I actually planned to start my exercise on Monday of this week, but was lazy and giving myself so many excuse to postpone it. Today, I really did it. Reached home at abt 6.15pm, i changed into my fitness attire and boots. Started climbing up and down 11 stories at my block. Planned to do 5 sets.

I did feel like giving up during my 1st set up, but when my determination stop my feeling, i continued. Until the 4th set, I found so tired and my heart beats very fast. I still continue with a slower pace. Finally completed the 5 sets.

Started at about 6.35pm.
Finished at about 6.55pm.
Took 20 minutes. But it still quite ok for a start.

... Next training on Friday (14.11.2008) running at Bishan Active. 1 Round.

06112008 - Gathering with Mount Kinabalu Travel Team

2008-11-06T23:59:00.000+08:00

Normal day at work but excited abt tonight as there's a gathering with Mt KK team to exchange photos and juz to meet up.

Went to raffles place to meet BF. He finished work at abt 7.15am. We rushed down to Novena Square Burger King for the gathering. Jo was already there eating her dinner. We ordered our food and eat while waiting for the rest to come.

Looking at the photos tend to bring us back to Sabah. Tinking abt the crazy things we hv done, and joking abt wat had happen. Every1 had their own camera, so we actually had quite a lot of photos to see through.

Finished viewing the photos at last. Jo gave us our certificate. Mine is in black and white as I did not reach the summit. As stated I reached 4072.10 metres. The peak of Mt KK is 4095.2 metres. Well, neway, there can always be the next time. At least I have a black and white for collection. When i reach the top, i will get the colour ones. Ppl go 1 colour certificate, but I got 2, one colour & one black and white. Not bad rite? :P

Burger King closed at 10pm. I cant believe that they started to closed the gates one by one when there's still lots of ppl in the restaurant. As we finished watever we were eating, we got the hint and dismiss the gathering.

Jo told us that there will still be training at Bt Timah Hill every Sunday at about 2pm. If we wanna join, juz let her know. Hmm, maybe I shld go for intensive training before the next attempt. Hopefully I dont get a black and white certificate the next climb.

29102008 - Day 2 @ Kota Kinabula : Going round

2008-10-29T23:59:00.000+08:00

Woke up at about 9am all 3 of us, washed up and feeling hungry.

Went downstairs and just next door on the left was a coffee shop, the first stall had all it’s various dishes laid out and the owner was already asking us what we wanted. Since we had not ate at this shop before, we decided to give it a try. CS had kway teow & noodle with egg and hot dog, I had beehoon with egg and ngoh hiang, Angie had nasi lemak and da bao.

There was this old uncle that came by asking what we wanted to drink, Angie had kopi-O while both of us had Milk in water, what we wanted was condensed milk mixed with water but they gave us milk powder mixed with water instead…and the uncle can still say very good very healthy see even the baby on the next table is drinking it…duh…

Finishing up breakfast, we walked heading NNE direction, passed by a book store and went in to have a look. As all 3 of us like to read, we were staying longer and longer in there…deciding it was time to move on.

We went to the beach side but being 10.30am, the sun was already very strong akin to Singapore’s mid day sun…

Nothing much to see as all the boats were out ferrying passengers or fishing and it was too bright to take nice photos. We left after a couple of minutes after feeling the sun rays really burning on our skin.

Signal Hill Observatory was our next destination, perched on the side of a hill just behind the town, CS quickly marked out the place on the GPS and had it lead us to it. From the roads, it seems it’s just a stone’s throw away to it, but actually walking there is a long way about 1.5km away up winding roads in the hill. 3 of us just walked slowly, we walked through the ‘ Australian Place ‘ and although the Atkinson Clock Tower was suppose to be a destination after the Observatory, we had to pass by the clock tower before reaching the road leading to the Observatory.

A few shots and read up on the history, we continued the walk to the observatory. Took us about 15mins to reach the place.

No idea why it was given the label of Observatory as it look more like a viewing or lookout station. Rested a while here and we moved off again further up hill, the rest of the way till the end of this hill road was another 1.4km away leading into another part of Kota Kinabalu town but where it was less popular. We walked up till it was turning down hill but as the roads were just wide enough for 2 cars on different directions, we decided not to go on and just turn back. There is this fenced up Government Flat…looks nothing like what our HDB flats are then again Government flats…are they for public or government servants?

On our way up we spotted a path leading up to the road, and this time while returning we decided to try out the path and see where it leads to. It was less than 5minutes and we were back in ‘ Australian Place ‘! a really short short cut! but it is not noticable if you have not been there before as the entrance to this cut is behind Borneo Backpacker Lodge. For easier identification, if you see a sports wear/goods shop, face Atkinson tower so that the shop is on ur left and turn left into the lane and continue walking in , once pass the building , the path is visible already.

On our way back to Jalan Tun Rakaz road, we passed by this rustic kopitiam named ” Museum Kopitiam “

Angie wanted to go in and take a look at the photos hanging at the back of the restaurant so we waited for her outside until she popped out again asking if we wanted to have a drink inside. All went in and Angie ordered their charcoal bread, while the 2 of us had supposely variations of lime juice, but it turns out the same visually as well as taste wise…wonder what’s the variation in that…still it was refreshingly sweet and hint of salty due to the preserved plums inside.

Angie & me went round looking at the photos and spotted our MM Lee in a couple of the photos!

Other than that, looked around at the antiques in the shop there was nothing much already…

Slowly we wandered around towards the general direction of our hotel and we came by this goreng pisang stall, both Angie and me wanted to try but seems to be held by by unknown reasons.

Looking at the time it was way past our normal lunch time and we are starting to feel hungry now…decided to try out their KFC we headed towards it. Ordered 2 sets of 3pcs chicken and slowly ate them while waiting for time to pass so that we can head back to the beach to take sunset photos.

This fella was sleeping when we arrived, was still sleeping when we left KFC…and just woke up when we finished our sunset shots… that’s 1.5hrs and only he knows how long before we arrived he started sleeping, but seems like it’s very comfortable and had a nice nap!

Great skies and a fantastic sunset we had!

That was it, after shooting sunsets already we headed back to hotel room to rest and prepare for our climb the next day!

Emptied out our bags and replaced the contents with sweaters, windbreakers, goretex etc…sorting out water rations and energy giving foods to eat along the way up last check on our headlights etc…we had to ensure all that we needed was packed and those not needed was stowed in the large check in bag to be kept in the hotel’s storeroom while we are away.

Finally all packed and showered, it’s time to hit the sacks as we had to get up at 5am the next morning!

28102008 - Day 1 @ Kota Kinabalu : Exploring the town

2008-10-28T23:59:00.001+08:00

Participants in this Trip :

Josephine aka Jo (Trip Organizer)
Chong Han
Rush
Florence
Jennifer
Angie (CS's mum)
Bee Har
Susan
Priscilla
Chee Siang
Lih Yu

Day 1 , 28th October 2008, 0400hr

Here we are, 4am waiting outside Thomson CC for our transport to Senai Airport in Johor, Malaysia. Turns out our driver who is coming down from Johor itself to pick us up forgot about the trip until Jo our trip organizer called him. Was told he would take about 45mins to reach us, that would put our departure time at around 5am. Still not too bad since our flight is at 7.20am in Senai, and to reach there would take about 1hour max.

While waiting for the mini bus to arrive, some of us went to grab a bite for breakfast while some of us stayed behind to look after the bags, chit chat and filled up our “White Cards” required by the Malaysia Customs for travelers.

Time went by and just as we were getting tired of waiting, our transport arrived! Quickly we loaded up our bags and ourselves into the bus to get on with the journey.

Everyone from the lack of sleep was all pretty silent during the ride, catching whatever number of winks we can get before arriving at Woodlands Checkpoint.

When we did arrive at Woodlands Checkpoint, we were all treated to something special! Because we were a bus and not allowed to use the car lanes, we moved to the bus lanes, BUT! the passenger clearing point was not opened yet and the customs officers told us to alight from our bus and queue up to clear the immigration via the bus clearing point! All of us were both surprised as well as amused as each one of us was queuing up and there were more large buses coming up behind, we could see the face of the closest bus driver, it was all foul up as he had to wait for the 11 of us to clear before his turn! Unfortunately, no photography was allowed at that point so try to imagine yourself being in the queue with buses behind you and moving at walking pace creeping along!

All cleared at Woodlands, we proceeded to Johor side, things went smoothly and incident free here.

It was back to catching 40 winks again as we speed along to Senai Airport.

A very basic airport this is granted it’s still under lots of renovation, above is the outer hall of the airport, it’s about 5 minutes walk to the check-in area.

Here we go, walking across the tarmac to board our plane, yeah it’s the ol’ skool style of boarding even thought sky bridges were available but it’s not in operation maybe because we are flying budget airline so everything cut out, but it’s ok no biggie walking a bit and getting nice photos from the ground! (p.s it’s actually illegal to take photos on airport tarmacs, no idea why though)

Here we go, finally lifted off and heading towards Kota Kinabalu, here’s a view of the airport area at about 457.235m above sea level

The flight of 2.5hrs was pretty uneventful with no major turbulence or passengers picking fights etc… *yawn* most of the passengers were sleeping as it is still only 0816hrs…and we are cruising along at 11989.251m above sea level at a speed of about 800km/hr

Touch down at Kota Kinabalu airport on time at about 0919hrs. As per Senai airport, Kota Kinabalu Terminal 2 is even more basic then Senai, it doesn’t even have Sky Bridges. A stroll along the tarmac was to be it.
Strangely enough, all Air Asia planes have this wheel chair sign painted on their engines…makes one wonder why…

Met up with Timmy from City Park Lodge, split into 2 groups and took a short 10min hop on the mini bus to our hotel. Pretty nice hotel with free internet(wireless as well!) TV and warm water all provided. Here’s(below) the main lobby area where all of us just dumped our bags waiting for our room allocation

Our Room, 102, very spacious and clean layout with a big bathroom, the rest who compared their Double room to our Triple room, all said that ours is much bigger then theirs, we did not see what is the size of the Double rooms so no comments on that.

Ok, unloaded, unpacked , time for lunch! We are all hungry by this time. Grabbed our cameras, valuables and off we went exploring the area and looking for food. Oh we went our way from the rest of the group as they headed off for some river rafting fun.

Walking around abit, we came to this coffee shop (Ding Hao) which is just round the corner to our hotel, here we settled down and had our meal, Angie had some malay kuey which did not taste nice, while waiting for our orders of Noodles. Overall taste was ok but guess being hungry makes everything taste nice!

After lunch we walked to CenterPoint and looked around…typical Shopping center which did not really attract us, but one thing we noticed is that for every 1 shop the next is a mobile phone shop! Indeed there 1/2 the shops in the first level is selling mobile phones and services. Seems like Bangkok’s MBK shopping center on a smaller scale…

As we were finding our way our of the building, we saw this tee shirt embridory shop, checked around with the shop owners, turns out that the prices are very cheap! Embridoring names is only RM4! no limits of characters unlike in Singapore’s Beach Road Army Market where it cost 50 singapore cents PER character…

CS did up his site URL on a seperate cloth so that I can sew/glue it to my D300’s strap :P, Angie got herself a Mount Kinabalu embroided badge with the date of our climb.

Headed back to hotel to get some rest as we were all pretty tired. Slept from about 2pm till 5.30pm and waited outside our room(which is the hotel’s lobby!) for the rest of the group for dinner.

Walked on a overhead bridge towards the Central Market and when we looked down at the road, there were quite a few roadside hawker stalls and durian stalls, tempted we went down to have a look and ended up ordering 3 fruits that was shared amount 7 of us! haha it left us craving for more but we decided not to fill ourselves up and to try what other stalls had to offer.

After the durian mini feast, we caught up with the rest who were eating fried carrot cake. Every one sampled a bit from their dish and it was really nice! So with out hesitating, Angie went to order a plate without chilli as it was too spicy with chilli. After watching the stall owner cook up our order and it being served, we all dug in, not so nice compared to the one with chilli. It's the usual carrot cake in Singapore has only carrot cake, eggs and preserved raddish, but this fella’s had generous servings of spring onions and bean sprouts!

While we were eating Jo went to buy some yam cake(?), not too bad it had a creamy texture but it’s not salty enough. Feeling thirsty we bought Lou Han Guo drink from the neighboring stall, nice drink just sweet and tasty enough with some dried longan flesh inside. All had their fill of food already, we moved on, it was dark by now.

Stopped by some stalls selling mangoes and some of us went to haggle with prices and the rest just stood there waiting. Some how or rather, the 3 of us(CS, Angie & me) got seperated from the group and we wandered by ourselves. Walking around a bit we realise we are back at CenterPoint shipping center and decided to go back to the embriodery shop to collect our stuff.

Next stop, Central Market…

Huge open air market selling everything there is from spices to raw fish to sea shells with strange looking sea plants that look like mini grapes and foul smelling/looking sea creatures in packets…yucks…we moved out of the area quickily as it was really smelly. We bought a huge pomelo that cost only RM3 but aside from being big and juicy, it was not really sweet and had very little taste to it.

Moving in the direct towards our hotel, we passed by the Handicraft Market and took a walk inside.

Every shop was basically selling almost the same items, either bead necklaces, or shell made items and small leather pouches…nothing really interesting here but it’s cram very cramed and hot. Moved around looking throught most of the stalls trying to find our way out, suprisingly GPS signal is quite strong. No guessing the roof is probably just a thin sheet of zinc or in some places just a piece of tarp only.

Once out of the handicraft shop, we headed back to our hotel with a detour into the shopping center we passed by earlier(just beside the roadside hawkers) and having a look inside. Nothing much so we left.

Went to “The Store” supermarket opposite our hotel to buy a 5.5l bottle of drinking water and some food to munch on.

Finally back in our room, we took our showers and tucked into bed watching TV and eating our stuffs.

So much activity for a day left us really tired and we all turned in pretty early.

27102008 - Day before our trip to Kota Kinabalu

2008-10-27T14:47:00.005+08:00

Not going out today... cos we are busy doing last minute checking to ensure that we brought everything we need.

See how big is my travel bag for this trip... it's like 1 times bigger than what i brought to my backpacking trip last year in June loh. What's differences is,i brought a big bulky jacket, a water bladder and some small things where and there. Hopefully i didnt miss out nething.

My mum seems quite please with my bag this time. They always think that big bags means you have brought watever u need. This morning, she went to the medical hall to buy me so many medicine. Forcing me to bring. Ba! Juz bring ba. I will do anything to let her feel safe.

This is the first time i use this bag for oversea trip. Carried it a few times to work to ensure that i get use to the weight and the bag. I will be carrying this bag for the climb, so i hv to make sure that i feel good when carrying the bag.

My trip will start tomorrow.
Meeting them at Thomson CC at 4am. We will take a mini bus to senai airport where we will take the internal flight to Kota KK. We will reach Kota KK at abt 10am. We will check in the hotel and start exploring the town. The climb will be on Day 3 by mersilau trail. Staying a night in the middle of the mountain. From Low's peak, we will come down by the via ferrata (vf). If you wanna know wat's vf, take a look at this link. http://www.mountaintorq.com Hope that we will be in time for vf. Cos after we reach the summit, we need to come down to sayat sayat before 8am, so that we will be in time for vf.

I'm oso a bit blur or wat's going to happen. But I will be updating the blog when i come back with loads of photos and experience. Just hope that everyting will go according to plan and i can be on the summit of Mt KK and try VF for the first time.

... till I come back on 2 November ...

26102008 - Wizard of Oz

2008-10-26T23:59:00.002+08:00

Was very excited today as we are going to watch Wizard of Oz at Drama Centre (National Library). It's always the musical performance on stage that I wanted to watch. Spent like $100+ for the ticket for both of us. Hmm, like a bit waste $ hoh. It's worth it!

Took a quick lunch at Mac and went over the National Library. Wow... lots of kids running abt and it's so noisy. Got this programme book on the table and a donation box beside it. We were tinking if we are required to put donation if we want the programme book. Neway, took a programme book and donated $2. *SobSob* the programme book costed $2. Dont know dont need to give mah. My 1st time leh. Next time i wont be donating loh. Me v meow de.

It's so nice! And funny. Kids are laughing at the actions of the actress, adults are laughing at the jokes they said. It's fun. After an hour, there's a interval. They said that we can hv our refreshment outside. Tot the refreshment is free de, go out and know that we actually need to buy our own refreshment. Then dont want ah! We went back to sit. :P
It finished at 5.30pm.

The next musical I wanna watch will be Sound of Music. Dont know when it's coming...

After the musical finished, we went to lvl 8 of the same building to see photo exhibition.

We meet Song Bee and friends for dinner tonight at Da Chang Jin. We dont know where is it, so we meet Carol and bf at Bugis, and they drive us there. It's actually those BBQ and steamboat restaurant only la. My bf bbq the potato and it's so nice! Smart ah boy! We smelled like bbq pit when we got out of there. Went home straight away as we will need more rest for the trip.

Tomorrow we gotta do last checking of the bags and things we will be bring.

15102008 - Juz another working day

2008-10-15T20:43:00.002+08:00

This few days are juz so bz. Reading a super thick book on pol pot and learning chinese spelling with Maggie today. Haha... she got 2/10. I dont even dare to ask her test me, cos i will get like zero de. Ask her to write 10 times each mistake, and being a good student, she actually finished it very fast. Gave her another round and she got it all correct. Smart student! We came out with an idea... we will be testing each other on chinese spelling every day when im around during lunch time. 10 words per day. Hopefully we will follow ba... or shld we juz act tt we forgotten so tt can escape from those scary chinese words?

My bf and I were thinking of going Iceland... but it's so far and expensive... looking up info online, & all the pics are juz so beautiful and attractive. Even the grass there looks nicer. If we really were able to go, i wanna make snow angel, build snow man, eat snow, sleep on snow, dug snow and of course take pic with snow! Wow... sounds like going Iceland is getting more and more interesting. But when? Hmm... wait when got chance ba.

This friday i will be on half day afternoon leave. Hmm, wat shld i do? Maybe i juz go home and watch tv and play sims2, and do facial, and do spa, and pack for my trip, and pack my room. Wow, come to tink abt it, really a lot of things to do leh... Ppb i will juz decide on going home, after bathing, sleep until 5.30pm.... haha... waste time!

Counting down to Mt KK, 12 days! Hvent pack my bag. Very lazy to pack. Ah Boy has juz uploaded the trail we will be taking up to Mt KK...
http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2008/10/14/updated-of-our-mount-kk-submit-climb-path/
I really hope i can make it up to Low's peak. Which i will really try my v best to reach there...
Jia you to me!

Tmr is Thursday, got Mind your body. As i know she will be reading this blog... Maggie is a pretty, nice and sweet girl. Dont know will Maggie be so kind to keep the newspaper for me? If she were to keep the newspaper for me, she will have another additional good point to her... being kind.
Cos Im going out for roadshow today, thus, wont be able to read the newspaper myself.

Neway, tmr will be an enjoyable day cos Im going out!
Quite a lot of ppl asked me y i like to go out... is it becos go out means no need to work?
Actually going out means my work will pile up and when im in the ofc, i will hv 2 do until siow to finish it. But I still like to go outdoor... dont really like to always still in a seat or same environment doing the same things and meeting the same ppl... s for my job, im always changing seat and looking at diff uncles... and aunties. So dis is ppb the job im looking for.
Although i always seems to be rather upset of staying in the ofc covering duty, there's quite a lot of ppl and things tt makes me wanna stay too...
Firstly is our Gie gie xiao xiao mei & Rie rie da jie jie.
Secondly is the things im able to eat when im in the ofc... if not, go out liao, the good food kana eaten by ppl de... like i v greedy like tt... but of course im not tt la. I dont like to eat things de... lol

Wow... looking forward to tmr and will be sleeping early tonight so that I hv more energy tmr to saiku uncles!

30062008 - Half a year gone

2008-06-30T22:15:00.002+08:00

Went dinner with Maggie after work. Had fish soup mee.. and as the fishball store is closing, don't know because of what reason, Maggie got to eat Duck noodles. After that went to shopping in Ang Mo Supermarket *.*" haha... become aunty liao... no la, Maggie wanted to buy her shampoo, so I just accompany her loh.

I had an outdoor record book that I will write down whatever i learn or read in the magazine. I updated it today with "How to choose a portable stove" and "Preparation for a Major Climb". Hopefully it will be useful for our on-coming trip up to Mount Kinabaru.

Tomorrow I was planned to go for roadshow. Hopefully I can go out tomorrow. After that I planned to go library to return some of the magazine and borrow more. Anyway library books are free, so if didn't borrow a bit too wasted. :P I will be borrowing Australia Outdoor Magazine & probably Shape. Hmm, but now that the June holiday is over, I think I can only borrow 4 books. Never mind, if can't borrow more books, I can always go back another day. Bishan Library very near my house only. keke...

27062008 - The night with Bumblebee

2008-06-27T20:39:00.004+08:00

Came back from work quite early today. In time to wait my favourite Da Chang Jin. Had dinner with my parents. My mum bought durian. Yummy!

After dinner, back to my room to read magazine i borrowed from bishan library yesterday.

BBC Wildlife for June 2007. It's a magazine about wildlife from UK. Interesting magazine, but seldom able to see the animals or insect mentioned in the book in Singapore. Anyway, at least I know about those living things, and hopefully one day we have enough money to go to UK to see them. :D

Read about insects today. As mentioned, population of certain species of bumblebee is decreasing. Which led to reductions in wildflower pollen and nectar sources, and loss of hedgerow nesting habitat. Wow, what a great responsibility a small bumblebee is holding.

The following are the site I visited to learn more about bumblebee:

Buglife
Wikipedia
List of bumblebee from Wikipedia

Bumblebee @ Work

2nd Hiking Training @ MacRitchie

2008-06-19T21:38:00.000+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2008/06/15/15th-june-2008-2nd-hike-in-macritchie/

1st Hiking Training @ MacRitchie

2008-06-09T23:19:00.000+08:00

We went to MacRitchie on 8 June 2008 at abt 11am. Wow… MacRitchie is packed with people on Sunday. Some camp kids walking around the places making a lot of noise talking through their walkie talkie, youth playing dragonboat, etc…

Plan was to take Route 1 and walk 3km in and out. A total of 6km that we planned to cover.

Excited about the day, as this was my first time hiking in MacRitchie with my new boots.
Didn’t feel good wearing it, even before I reached MacRitchie. Thought I should be able to make it through the 6km, but when we were at about 1.5km, I felt the back of my feet starting to hurt alot. I sat on the bench and removed my boots only to find that my right feet had a blister. As I was in pain, we decided not to continue walking but to turn back. CheeSiang suggested that I loosen the laces on the return journey, but must be careful as loosening the laces means that there will not be support on my ankle.
Saw a bunch of monkeys at the side of the trail eating and looking at passer-by. A group infront of us must have fed them with food that’s why all the monkeys came down from the tree to take the food from any passer-by. We continued walking and avoid looking at them.

Finally, we returned the starting point.
Saw an uncle washing his shoes with the water in the Reservoir. Don’t know if he realized that the water he drinks at home is from this reservoir.

So in total we have hiked 3km in 1.5 hours. Slow…

We will have to practice more during the weekdays and come back next week to hike… hopefully we can complete the 6km that we planned this week.

Training - Climbing the stairs

2008-06-05T20:50:00.001+08:00

Today is my 6th training climbing the stairs. Carrying my bag with a 1.5 litres of water in it, I climbed down and up of 11 stories twice today (a total of 300 stairs per set). It was tiring and non enjoyable as what I can enjoy visibly is just closed doors and pots of dying plants placed outside each house.

After wearing my new boots, I haven’t had any pain or wounds on my feet. Hopefully it will continue this way, so that I’m able to carry on with my training every days, or maybe alternated days.

Really looking forward to the training at MacRitchie with him. We planned to go on a 6km hike in MacRitchie and really hope I will make it through. Will be carrying my bag with a 1.5litres of water in it.

Tomorrow, I will be carrying the same weight as today, and climb down and up of the stairs 3 times.
Must really have determination in achieving my goal for tomorrow. Jia Yu !

* For CheeSiang: Let’s Jia Yu and progress together! We can do it de! :D

Mount Kinabalu Expedition 2008

2008-05-29T22:00:00.002+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2008/05/29/hello/

07022008 to10022008 - Lunar New Year

2008-02-11T09:22:00.000+08:00

1st Day
Didnt go relative hse for visiting. Wake up and went to 2 temples. Felt hungry and went to the coffee shop near my primary school for breakfast. Felt like eating noodles and we ordered fishball noodles from this only chinese store at the coffee shop. At first the uncle's attitude is not very good already. To make the matter worse, eat bowl of noodles is actually $4. Wow... $4 leh! and it's not much oso de loh. :( We order 3 bowls, and it's $12. Heart pain ah! Aiya, anything la. Pity them have to sell on 1st year of CNY. But oso cannot charge so ex mah... When home after that and nothing to do. Watch tv, but nothing de leh. Only CNY programme from china and taiwan. Funny but c long liao oso bored ah. Try to log on to play my online game, Xiah. But dont know y keep on cant get into the game. Gave up after a few tries. Chat online with my boyfriend. Read my psychology book i borrowed from the library about Freud. Luckily there's online dictionary, if not i will be checking those english words dont i dont know the meaning until sian liao... Cant rmb how tt day ended but didnt feel any stress when i go to bed cos the next day oso no need to work. Yeah!

2nd Day
Woke up v late. His mum has instructed that no one is to leave the house before lunchtime. So we have to wait till after lunch then can meet. But after his lunch is like... 2pm liao. Still can go where? A bit sian with deciding where to go... so we juz stayed at home until after dinner. At night we went to MacRitchie reservior. Didnt go reservior at night before. But it's very cooling and quiet. Sit next to the water and listen to the insect make noice. Juz like in Pai. Nice! Sat till about 11.30pm, i catch the last bus home. Reach home, bath and went to bed as we have more exciting prorgamme the next day.

3rd Day
Fone rings at 9am. Boyfriend ask me to wake up liao. Lazy and drag abit after waking up. Meet him for breakfast at MacDonald. Eat liao, en we take mrt to kranji mrt. Waited for SMRT Bus 925 until we so angry. So long en come. The bus went to this kranji reservior. But as we dont know there's the Sungei Buloh stop, we didnt go down. We con't until we reach Choa Chu Kang, which is the intercharge already. We went opposite to take the same bus to Kranji reservoir. Quickly alight and saw a sign which say the bus 925 will only take u to Sungei Buloh on Saturday and Public holiday. Wow... like tt oso can ah. Dumb company bus! Neway, we need to walk about 1.5km to Sungei Buloh. Just walk loh, we super use to walking liao. Haha...
Reach Sungei Buloh, we paid for the entrance fee and went in. Wow... it's juz like a nature reserved loh. No need much maintance. And insects, plants, fishes and birds everywhere... I like! There were a lot of super big spiders and snakes. Interesting plants growing everywhere. Birds in all colours flying around. Fishes swimming and dancing out of the water. Wow.. dis place is heaven! I like i like! Went around take photos and look at spider web. Look at funny looking plants and tinking why they grow like tt. haha... Enjoyable day but tired. Took dinner at Burger King. Super hungry so eat super fast! Went home after that, legs so "swan". Cant even walk properly. :P Reach home, bath, slp, wake up, msn w ah boy, slp. Today is the most enjoyable day among the 4 CNY days.

4th Day
Went to J8 to eat KFC. Shopped around for cheap clothing. Cos everywhere is like hving discount for new year clothings. :P Bought Sims2 psp version de. $30+. Wanna buy v long liao. Went back to my hse together. Play my new game. Err.. ok'ly nice but v diff from the Sims2 on pc. Play sims, watch tv, eat, watch tv. Feeling sian tt tmr need to work liao.

07012008 - National Shortbread Day

2008-01-07T19:53:00.000+08:00

Today is National Shortbread Day, got a recipe from Allrecipes!

Scottish Shortbread

Ingredients
· 2 cups butter
· 1 cup packed brown sugar
· 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 3 to 3 3/4 cups flour. Mix well.

3. Sprinkle board with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

LMK if you try it!

06012008 - First Sunday of the year

2008-01-06T19:16:00.000+08:00

Today is the first Sunday of the year... We went to Haw Par Villa to take photos... Photos will be posted later.
Went to toa payoh sizzler to eat at abt 4.30pm. We ate until our stomach wanna explode! Keke... went back home. Tot of going to MacRitchie to take pic. But as we were to tired, we felt aslp.

I'm planning wat shld we be doing for next few weekend... Tot of only 1, doing raspberry sorbet together. Still tinking of more...

Tomorrow is National Shortbread Day. I will look for a shortbread recipe to post on my blog so every1 can be baking shortbread together! Keke, nice!

02012008 - First Day of work in 2008

2008-01-03T19:48:00.000+08:00

I went back to work today.

The only part of going back to work that’s so fun is my friends. We talk all the rubbish things and laugh at our jokes

Hey, are you back in work/school yet? And if you are, are you buried under a pile of work/homework too?

P.S. How many days is it until the next public holiday?

01012008 - Happy New Year

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! May You And Your Loved Ones Have A Blessed And Wonderful Year In 2008. May All Your Good Dreams Come True!!

I’m soooooo nervous! It's a new year! And it might be a year where my life goes into another stage.

I didnt do much on new year day. When to his hse, watch Pirate of the carribean 1. Sleep. Ate Mac for dinner. Mac at braddell became smaller with the new design. Nice but err.. like not enuf to sit leh.

When home, felt sian abt tmr. Next public holiday gotta wait till CNY liao. SIAN !

31122007 - The last day of work in 2006

2007-12-31T23:32:00.000+08:00

I’m sooooo excited! Today is the last day of 2006. But sadly, I have to work till 3pm. And tonite my parents were be going for a countdown party and my bro and I will be at home. Hmm.... the earth is turning anti-clock wise... now fashion old ppl go out, young ppl stay at home meh?

Neway, my mum left some money for us to order pizza tonight. Pizza party with my bro. He came over after work and we bought super many things from the shops opp my hse and planned to watch tv and eat sneaks. But we were so full after the pizza.

15 more minutes to year 2008. And my new year resolution will be :

1) Learn to be patient.
2) Not to be careless with my work.
3) Provide more love and concern to him
4) Learn 5 things new in the new year
5) Get a new house of our own
6) Be able to love myself more

Hey, how do YOU spend New Year at your house & wat's ur new year resolution?

Happy New Year !

05102007 - CS's Bday

2007-10-05T22:23:00.000+08:00

I went to work as usual but I toke my first half day no pay leave today. When to STA for roadshow for the 1st half of my day. Set up the room and get ready for customer to come. I attended to our first customer and he signed up for the course. First success of the day. A good start!

Afternoon, i went lunch with Sally and Jasmine. After tt when to buy a birthday cake for him. It's black forest cake. Quite nice... Took a cab to his hse. I already knew there's no1 home tt day except him. I pushed the door bell and stood at the corner and wait. But no answer... Pushed again... no answer. I called his house. He picked up and we talked for a while. I opened this main door and he asked me to wait cos he saw his main door only. Keke... En he saw me standing outside... A bit boh liao hoh. keke.. but fun mah. Neway, we cut the cake and ate. When into the room to slp for a while cos very tired.

Woke up and when for dinner at Sakai. Sakai a lot of ppl, maybe cos friday night ba. Neway, we sat at the counter seat. That area dont know y so hot. We quickly finish eating and went home.

Today is his 26th Birthday and I wish him Happy Birthday. This few years, i dont hv much $ to buy birthday present for him. But i know he wont mind de. Wishing tt he can be happy always!

130907 - 1 month anniversary @ work

2007-09-13T21:51:00.000+08:00

Today is my 1 month anniversary at work. Keke... I was suppose to go to Tampines roadshow today. But as Lynn, supervisor at short term, is on MC, Melvin need to cover for her so I went to STA. Nothing much at STA, went there err... 3rd time liao. Noting much i can say on the blog, but we actually did quite well today.

Meet SO after work to look at his new working place. He is starting work tmr and we juz wanna go there and c how's the place and how much is the mrt fare. Neway, expensive raffles place with high class ppl all over the place. Walked over to fanun centre for dinner and buy speaker for my ofc. Took 162 home.

Super tired today cos i stood the whole day cos got ppl ... haiz... cant say oso. Dont care ba. I juz do my work...

Anyway, for the past 1 month i really learnt a lot of things...

Special thanks to Maggie, my buddy, & Jasmine who brought me for lunch on the first day when im super blur.

Thanks to Jin for teaching me how to do application for drivers and oso Carrie, Soo Chee and Melissa for helping out when I'm blur with my first one to one driver Mr Soh. Anyway he is also blur but nice. He actually has the same birthday, but diff year, as me.

Thanks to Tony, Simon and Melvin for sharing their experience and encouraging me to do better.

Thanks to Sally (Mei Jie) & Jasmine for teaching me the things to do at roadshow.

Thanks to Lynn and Calissa who explain the short term stuff to me. And even when Lynn was sick yesterday, she still tried her best to explain s much s she can to me.

Thanks to all in my dept and everyone who shown me patient when im busy writing notes on my small notebook.

I do actually like this job very much and hopefully the feeling will stay on. :D

140807 - 1st Day of work at CityCab - Comfort Office

2007-08-14T21:34:00.000+08:00

Finally I got a full time job. Working for Comfort & CityCab. Start work at 8am, so i reached at 8am to look for Vivian. She came out to the lobby area and asked me to go into a conference room to wait as she gave another person who is waiting an application form to fill up. The day started with signing the appointment letter and going through the benefit and stuff.... After that is the induction course. The course actually took up abt 3 hours... *Yawn*. Finally i was bought to my dept. But I was still not shown to my seat. Tony is my manager. Melvin is one of the executive. Simon, the one who interviewed me, was not here. MC, so lucky. Melvin started off with explaining abt the company and wat so good abt the company. Lots of information, too much to absorb but interesting to know. Tony told me that my buddy will be Maggie, the receiptionist. I will be attract to her to learn abt stuff. I will be learning abt the company and everything before I was given a jobscope. Maggie is a very interesting girl. Talk quite a lot but err... doesnt seems to be disturbing me. Maybe cos i talk a lot too. The first day of work is so blur. Everyone coming in to the centre to ask dis ask tt. Maggie is answering their question and im juz sitting there listening. Oh ya, there's a Jasmine character too. She is a supervisor that is running outdoor to get business for the company. Our customer is actually taxi driver. We rent them taxi and get rental fee from them. That's all for the first day. Nothing much tt i can absorb, but has written watever i can rmb in a notebook at the end of the day.

020807 - 2nd Interview - CityCab @ Comfort Office

2007-08-02T21:27:00.000+08:00

When for my 2nd interview at Comfort Office. Agent asked me to look for an HR assistant name Vivian.

I reach the office early to fill in the forms and everything.

Started interview with Vivian and Simon (one of the executive of the dept im applying for). They asked me questions of my current and previous employment. I answered them and asked them abt the dept itself. Vivian told me that she will get back to my agent if im shortlisted. I told her tt im going holiday so could only start work on 14 August. She noted it and told me she will get back to me before i go on holiday.

010707 - Interviewing Day Part 1

2007-08-02T00:10:00.000+08:00

Been woke up by a call from a company that want me to go down for interview. I sent out resume to lots of companies last night, and they called to arrange for an interview today.

I got 3 calls to ask me to go for interview. 3pm at yellowpages building, 4pm at goodwood, 5pm at island landscape. Hmm... very rush.

I went to my SO hse for lunch as his hse is near to the 3 companies. When over to yellowpages building for my 1st interview. Same thing always, fill up the application form and sit there and wait. Start interview by looking at my resume and asking abt my previous job, en telling me abt the job scope, en ask me abt my family. He offered me 2 positions. The pay is extremely low but it provide transport allowance. Hmm... was tinking to look at the other 2 companies first...

Reached the 2nd company late. About 4.10pm. Looked for the office and got lost. The place is so big. Called the interviewer. Nice woman. Same thing again, fill up form and wait. She asked me abt my previous job and lots of question of how to handle customer. Tell me abt the job scope. Everything is fine, until she told me about the working hours. It's Monday to Friday 9-6pm, Alternative Saturday (half day). And the pay is a bit low for 5.5days work week. She actually accepted my application and offer me the job. I told her im going for another interview and she asked me where is it... i say at island and she told me isialnd and them is jing zhen ' ing... I juz told her i will get back to her by tomorrow.

Last company. Late again. Reached at 5.10pm. Fill up form and wait. It's a fair lady in her 50s. Nice but let me wait for too long liao... abt 20mins leh. Went thru my previous job again and she told me the job offer is actually at Lim Chu Kang. I sian half liao. Then she looked at my expected salary and told me actually i can ask for smthing more. She ask me if i wanna do amendments... of course wan la... keke... After amending it, she told me about the job scope and the working hours. 8.30-5.30 (monday to friday) and 8.30-12.30pm (saturday). Fully sian liao! Finished the interview by telling me that she will arrange for me to go down to the Lim Chu Kang site to take a look.

Reached SO house and started writing emails to the companies saying that i reject their offer. Waste my time... but at least i know wat is the market price now. keke. And my SO actually went with me to the interview and stood outside the company waiting for him. He stand until his leg red red... so pain thing. So thankful to him for accompanying me to the interviews!

290707 - Jurong Bird Park

2007-07-30T11:23:00.000+08:00

We meet Juan and Ping @ Boon Lay MRT Station at 12pm. It was raining the whole morning already so we were not sure if we will be able to go to the Bird Park a not. When to Swensen's for our lunch first. Ping started to update us abt her troubled job. And we juz listened and gave advice. Rain stopped after we finish lunch. Luckily. We tok a bus to Bird Park. We spent like half a hour at the outside of the bird park taking photos of the signboard & birds and going to the toilet.

Finally we went into the park. When to see the Penguins in an air-con room. Nice! The Penguins were so cute. So ugly ones (Juan say de) but all fat ones...

Tok photo with this giant bird cage.

Rushed over to see bird show at 3pm. "Birds 'n Buddies Show. We saw the costumed buddies of the show Vulcan the Vulture, Toukie the Toucan and Pedro the Pelican. The buddies were shown as funny characters that suddenly appear when least expected and with the original birds they represent. Amigo, the parrot, who sings Rasa Sayang, Happy Birthday and Ke Ren Lai and Sassy, the Cockatoo, who acts as a messenger of coupons and money notes, Mr. And Mrs. Horn, the Toco Toucans, Vicky, the Hornbill, and others.

These are the birds we saw ...

And the memories of the day...

Day 25 of our backpacking trip (Photos included)

2007-07-04T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 25 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand & Singapore) Woke up at 5.45am. Final check for our things and checked out. There’s dis uncle at the counter. We told him we want to check out and he asked me did we drink anything from the fridge, we say no and he rudely went to check. Came out, he went to check if we have paid for the room. He checked that we paid and smiled at us and we left. Went to post our postcard.

Walked outside the gate tot of hiring a tuk tuk to send us to airport. But a Sawngthaew stopped infront of us, asking us where we wanted to go. We told him airport and he coded us THB50/person, which will be THB100 for both. We bargain with him. At last, we paid THB30/person, THB60 for both. Took some pic outside the airport.

Reached the airport, we got to scan our bag in order to get into the airport. Inside the airport, there’s nothing much to do but to wait for time. Tiger Airline’s counter’s finally open. We got our boarding pass and went into the waiting area. The whole Chiang Mai International Airport was like about ¼ of the size of Changi Airport Terminal 1. There’s only about 5 shops opened. We sat down and watched tv. We board the plane at about 8.30am. Thinking it’s still free seating, like last time, we sat somewhere infront. But a Singaporean woman came to us and said that that’s her seat. We told her politely that is free seating and she said it’s not anymore, rudely. We checked our ticket and being politely, we said sorry to her. She didn’t reply anything. Why cant Singaporean be more polite? It’s just a seat, why be so angry about it, don’t understand. Anyway, we found our seat.

It’s next to the wing, so means we cant take pic of scenery outside the plane. Reached Singapore at about 12.30pm. We were at the Budget Terminal. We walked down the plane and into the Terminal. This terminal is like open-air but with a shelter. No aircon. Called my mum before collecting my checked in luggage. Heard that my grandma passed away the day before. Collected my luggage, I went straight to the wake.

Day 24 of our backpacking trip (Photos included)

2007-07-03T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 24 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Went up late. Very lazy to go anywhere else, so just went out to buy lunch at Mike's. We used the buy one get one free coupon. We actually need to get two of the same burger in order to use the coupon. Back to hotel to eat. And when out to buy fruits after that. Bought 3kg of custed apple. Ate again at a roadside store selling chicken rice. On out way back, we bought their bubble tea. There’s containers of powders labeled the flavour of the drink. After we choose, they will scoop out the powder and mix it with hot water and stir. Add ice and “pearl”. Serve. Quite nice but ice too much liao. Walked to night bazzar to take a last look at that place. Went into pantip plaza. Saw some Girl Guides walking around and tot Guides HQ shld be nearby. Used the free internet provided by TOT, looking for the address for the Guides HQ. Got the address and a free map from a travel agency, we went looking for the HQ. We found the road. It was just beside pantip plaza. But the road was super long. Walked down the road, we saw a sign showing the Thailand Guides Logo and some Thai language. We followed the sign and finally found the place. We got into the HQ and found the guides shop. But it’s closed. Another customer went to the office to ask someone to open the shop. A staff came over and open the shop.

The signboard that lead us to the Guides Hse of Chiang Mai

Outside of the HQ

A photo with the main building.

Dont know what building is dis. But think it's the kitchen.

The guides shop.

We bought badges of Chiang Mai Girl Guide and walked around the HQ. This HQ is a training centre for the Girl Guides in Chiang Mai. Tot of going to our usual roadside store to hv dinner, but it’s not open. So we went to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we went to Comfort Mart to buy something for breakfast the next day. Took a pic from the cashier who taught us Thai the other day.

Went back to our room to pack our bags. Took a few pic of the room.

Went to slp after bathing.

Day 23 of our backpacking trip (Photos included)

2007-07-01T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 23 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up at 11am. Even later than the day before. When to the Sunday market for breakfast and visit Wat Phan On.

It's just beside the Sunday Market. There's painting on the walls that seems like painting that was hanged on the wall. But when we looked at it closer, it was actually painting on the wall itself. Suddenly to rain heavily. I rushed home as we didnt buy the waterproof bag to protect the camera. Took a pic w our hotel keeper, Nim. And she is the one who gave us the free tv. :P

Went out at about 4.30pm. When walking down the usual route, we saw lots of roadside store beside the road. And the road was actually close for it. We walked through the whole “Pasah Malam”.

The whole thing was about 7km. Basically the whole of Ratchadamnoen Road. We were walking on the road that was usual very busy. Lots of store selling the same things. Bought cup corn to eat while walking around. As it gets later, more people join in. The whole road was covered with people pushing around. There's loudspeakers placed on some of the lamp posts. At about 6pm, someone talked through the loudspeaker in Thai. As we dont understand it, we ignored it. Suddenly there's music played thru it. Every one, including the seller, on the street stood straight. It's actually the national anthem. The street become so quiet, except the national anthem. We had heard abt Thai standing up in cinema when national anthem is played before the movie being played. But we dont know that Thai really respect the national anthem so much that they can put down watever they are doing and stand up straight and attention when the national anthem was being played during a night market. Foreigner, who was looking at the items being sold or taking pic of interesting things, actually straight at attention when they saw the others doing it. We joined in too. The anthem was played like 30 seconds. After the anthem, the Thai bowed, think it's oso to show respect to the anthem ba. They continued watever they were doing after that. We was thinking wat if they were cooking half way during the national anthem being played. They will straight attention and when the anthem ended, the food they were cooking will be burnt. Haha... There's dis bamboo cup drink. The cup was actually bamboo. Interesting and saving environment by not using plastic cup. We bought 4 of it and will be bringing the bamboo cup home. Finally bought my dad's shirt at this store. The woman was i tink a Indian. Her English is good and tot we were Thai and spoke Thai to us whole time before we asked for price in English. She said we wore and looked like Thai. Err... dont know she got give us extra discount for looking like Thai a not. There's oso people performing in the middle of the road. Infront of them, they placed a bowl for money. Young kid below 5 years old to old couple above 60 years old. Performing dance, songs and playing instrument.

Although I'm not against them selling their talent in the middle of the room, but they were blocking the road making it so hard for ppl to walk through. There's dis woman who was crawling on the road from one side of it to another begging for money. The place was already so crowded already, she still crawling on the ground. Dont know if there will be ppl tripped over her a not. Anyway, dont know wat festival they were hving today. As there's people releasing light lantern into the air. There's a stage infront of three king monument. People perform traditional dance and others. There's a store selling “Ancient Ice Cream”. It's actually those Potong ice cream but dont know why they called it Ancient Ice Cream. We bought Coconut Cream flavour. It's quite nice. Tot of buying something for ourselves but we couldnt find anything that is useful and nice. Felt hungry, we bought Pad Thai. But think it was placed on the serving tray for quite long le, tt's why it's cold. Still felt hungry after that, we went to 7-11 to buy 4 cheese hotdogs. It's shorter than the long hotdog that we ate the day before. Finished it quite fast oso. Ta bao corn back to eat. We actually ate a total of 6 corns today. About 10pm, the seller started to pack up. We oso started to walk back to the hotel. Reached hotel at 11pm. Ate corn. Super full.

Day 22 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-30T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 22 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up late as we didnt plan anything to do. Just to relax. Went out for lunch and back to hotel again. When over to night bazaar to walk around and have dinner. Thought of looking for the shirt that my dad wanted. But they were selling it very expensive there. Think is to cheat Ang Mo de ba. Ate dinner at Burger King. Saw a big size woman sitting at the corner eating her burger. Her phone rang and when she picked up, it's was actually a he. Hmm... cant trust theeyes to difference gender in Thailand. Walked back to hotel. On the way back, we stopped by 7-11 to get something for supper. Got 4 pieces of long hotdog. Each hotdog is like 1 foot long. 4 pieces together was like 1.2 metres. We actually ate 1.2 metres of hotdog. It's really nice and cheap but a bit crazy la. Stay up till 2am to watch a movie on HBO. The ending was stupid.

Day 21 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-29T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 21 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Left hotel to Chang Puak Gate in late morning. Wore t-shirt and jeans so that we can get into the temple. On the way, when into 7-11 to buy a hotdog bread for breakfast. Reached Chang Puak Gate, there's dis Sawngthaew driver who waved at us before crossed the road to Chang Puak Gate.

He knew we were going to Doi Suthep and wanna to drive us there. He quoted THB40 to Doi Suthep. But there's only 2 person on the vehicle. In order to get that price, there must be 10 people. He offered that we were able to get the whole vehicle by yourself for only THB200 per person to Doi Suthep only. Hmm... a bit boh hua hoh. So we told him we will wait for another 8 persons. He asked us to wait.

He came back with an Ang Mo Couple. They're from Holland. After a while, he came back with another Ang Mo Couple. They're from Spain. He coded us THB50/person for 6 persons. We agreed to the price and we started the journey. The journey was bumpy and lots of turn. The higher we went, the colder the surrounding air. We reached Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It's a magnificent Lanna-style temple near the summit. We told the driver to meet us back one hour lata. Climb the 306 steps up the temple, our legs felt tired.

According to Lonely Planet Guide Book, they didnt say that there's an admission fee. We got to pay THB30 each to get into the temple.

We were there already so might as well go in. Bought tickets and were to the side of the temple. There's a viewing point. From there, we were able to see Chiang Mai Airport and the place around it.

But as it's fogging, we were not able to see the whole scenery. At least we were able to see part of it. Went into the temple, there were lots of statues around.

Nothing much at this place, lots of Thais praying, and lots of Ang Mo watching. There's this Lanna-style copper-plated chedi (stupa) topped by five-tiered gold umbrella – one of the holiest chedi in Thailand. There's those big bells around the temple and names of people who donated money to build the bells. There's actually Singaporean name and address on it. Guess it's quite a lot time ago as the postal code was still in 4 digits.

Saw a jade buddha. Lots of people praying and taking pic of it. Left the temple and went down the steps. Bought food at the bottom of the temple. Time-up. We boarded the Sawngthaew. The Sawngthaew will take us to Palace Garden for just an additional of THB60. We went to Palace Garden which was abt 4km away from the temple.

According to Lonely Planet Guide Book, admission is free. But when we reached there, foreigners need to pay THB50/person. Hmm... we were there already so just go in ba.

Bought the ticket at the ticket counter. The person actually tot I'm Thai, as Thai needs to pay only THB20. She tears the THB20 for us and talked to us in Thai. But as we dont understand wat she was talking about she knew we were not Thai. So she tear the THB50 for us. :( Should have learned some Thai, so can pay lesser. :P Went into the Palace Garden and found some regret of paying to come in. It's actually like Singapore.

Everywhere flowers and plants. The Ang Mos see the place like they have never seen flowers before. There's even a corner as Fern Garden. Hmm... in Singapore we can see Ferns everywhere. Well, we just walked one round and got out, as it started to rain. We got outside and sat and wait for the Spain couple. They came and we boarded the vehicle. Back at Chang Puak Gate. We paid the driver THB320. Went back to hotel to changed to our shorts as the weather back at Chiang Mai City was super hot. Watched “Hitch” on HBO. Then when out for dinner at our usual roadside hawker. Gave us THB10 discount again. Back to our hotel to bath and slept early.

Day 20 of our backpacking trip (Photo attached)

2007-06-28T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 20 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up and pack up to check into a new room. Changed to a fan room. The fan room actually doesnt come with tv. But as we have been staying here for quite a long time, she gave us a tv set, without remote control de, better than nothing ba. Went out for the Doi Suthep trip. Looked for Sawngthaew to ask to go to Doi Suthep. The drivers asked for THB300-500. Our budget for the trip up was just less than THB50 as planned. Some of the driver even scolded us and told us the price was impossible. We walked over to Chang Puak Bus Station as one of the driver accidentally told us that there was public transport going to Doi Suthep at Chang Puak Bus Station and he will drive us over for THB40. Of course we didnt take his tuk tuk as we knew where Chang Puak Bus Station is and it's only abt 1km away from where we were.
We walked over to Chang Puak Bus Station, and on the way, we saw Wat Chiang Man.
First time we saw a Wat with Ang Mo tourists.

Some part of the Wat is under maintenance. Looked around the temple. Ladies are actually not allowed to get into one of the hall. Took some pic and left. Reached Chang Puak Bus Station. Looked around and didnt see any bus going to Doi Suthep. Lots of Tuk tuk driver asking us where we wanted to go. But as their English is till a certain limit, they cant understand wat we were taking about. Gave up asking them, we asked the information counter how to got Doi Suthep. The woman was polite and helpful. She showed us a map and draw on it that we shld go to a 7-11 in front of Chang Puak Gate to take taxi to Doi Suthep. It will cost THB40 if we take a taxi from there. THB40 to get back. The tuk tuk driver continued to persuade us to take their tuk tuk but as it was about the rain, we decided that we better dont go today. We returned to our hotel . Dinner at Mike's. We ta bao back to hotel as the dining area at Mike's is very hot and dusty. Bought ice cream for supper and bread for the trip the next day. The last time I ate Mike's, I vomitted all out as Im not feeling well then. But this time, I ate it and the portion's so much that when I finish half my burger, I'm very full already. Still force the whole burger in. Watched “Four Brothers” on HBO. Eat ice-cream and slpt early cos got to wake up the next day for the trip. Hopefully the weather will be good!

Day 19 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 19 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Saving day! We woke up late. Went to lunch at this Chinese restaurant. There was dis grandpa speaking Teochew with us. Luckily I know a bit of Teochew... err... enuf for him to understand us. He talked to us abt himself and asked us where we are from. He said that Singapore was very beautiful and clean. He went there before, 20 years ago. He served us with ice water. Added ice to our water when he saw that there's no ice left. And he asked us if there's ice in Singapore. Err... he shld visit Singapore again someday. We ate 2 bowls of pork-ball noodles for THB40. We went to 7-11 to buy drinking water. And it started to rain very heavily. We rushed back to our hotel and on our way back, we stopped by Comfort Mart to buy something to eat. The cashier in the shop was a very polite and helpful woman. We had been there many times, and every time we were there, she will smile sweetly at us and greet us. This time, she decided to teach us some Thai.
Hello = sa wat dii khrap (guys) and sa wat dii kha (gals)
Thank you = khawp khun khrap (guys) and khawp khun kha (gals)
Hmm... enuf of Thai lesson, we ended the session by saying “khawp khun khrap/kha” to our “teacher”. Ppb, if we go there more often, we will be able to speak Thai. But guess it means to spend more money in the mart to learn Thai. Hmm.. Is it worth it?Went back to hotel to continue planning our Doi Suthep trip. On that day, we will buy some chocolates or snacks bar with us, in case if there's no food shop up there. We will oso be bringing water. We will be taking a Sawngthaew to Doi Suthep (try to bargain for less than THB50). We will get the driver to drive us to the parking lot. Try to get a map. We will climb up the 300 stairs leading to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. After that, we will get to Phra Tamnak Phu Phing, a winter palace for the royal family. We can visit the palace garden and those importantly admission is free. From there, we will try to get to Doi Pui, Hmong Village and Coffee Plantation. Try to see if we can get a peep of the waterfall. If not, we will have to pay THB200 for all the waterfalls. Dont know how many waterfalls will there be. Before sunset, we will get a Sawngthaew from wherever we will be back to hotel. Hopefully from wherever we will be, there's Sawngthaew or Tuk Tuk. If not, we will have to walk all the way back to Chiang Mai City, which will be abt 16km (depending where will we be) taking us abt 10 hours. Hmm... see how ba.Watched Nanny McNuff on HBO. Raining very heavily outside. After the movie, we had no choice but to eat at the hotel's restaurant. After dinner, we went to the nearby shop giving internet service to upload the blogs and check our mails. Used the internet for 59mins and 5seconds. Paid THB15 for using 1 hour of internet. Went back to hotel to pack up and get ready for the next day. Slpt!

Day 18 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 18 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Actually tot of going back Pai as it's cheaper there. But as we dont feel like taking the long 5 hour journey bus, we decided we will stay in Chiang Mai. Our plan for the day was to visit all the “Wat” (temple) in Chiang Mai. We went for our breakfast in one of those roadside shop. Beef noodles. Ordered 2 bowls of noodles and 2 bottles of fanta. THB7. Nice and not expensive. We looked at our guide book to see which Wat to visit first. We were nearest to Wat Sai Mun Mianma.

Came across a Wat and we tot it's Wat Sai Mun Took a few pic. It's not much. The hall of the temple was not open. Only a few people sitting and slping outside the temple. Went out of Chiang Mai City to visit another Wat naming Wat Muang Mang. Walked pass the newspaper printing centre of Chiang Mai. People arranging stacks of newspaper. Packing them and tying them up. Can oso c some of the worker reading the newspaper. Guess the workers working there need not buy newspaper as they're able to read when working. Save $ and earn $ at the same time. Wise! Need to pay THB20 to visit Wat Muang Mang. So we just took some pic from outside. Looking in, the hall of the temple is oso not open. Maybe it's lunch time for the monks? Or the hall will only b open during prayers? Walked towards Buak Hat Park as there's 3 Wats there. We crossed the road to go back to Chiang Mai City and walked along the walls of the city to Buak Hat Park. Saw a wat, it's the Wat Sai Mun. So the wat earlier on was actually not Wat Sai Mun. :P

Along the road, we passed by a wet market. Outside the market, hawker selling fresh fruits. Just forget abt the Wats ba, anyway, dont tink it's tourists attraction oso ba. We decided to buy Lychees outside Buak Hat Park and walked back to the wet market to buy mangosteens and water apples back to hotel. When into the park to rest a while...

Went out to the "Lychees Lane", we bought 3 kg of Lychees.

Then to the market, we bought 3 kgs of Mangosteens and 1 kg of Water Apples. Journey back to the hotel was actually quite near, but as we were carrying fruits of 7 kg. Madness! Back to the hotel, we put all the Lychees and Water Apple into the fridge. Started eating 3 kg of Mangosteens. Finished the Mangosteens within half an hour. Wow... It's nice and sweet but found hungry after eating the Mangosteens. Opened instant noodles and eat it dry. HBO replayed Polar Express. Watched the whole movie finally! Err... quite nice la. After planning for the Doi Suthep, we slept for a while. Woke up for dinner. But it was raining outside, so we went somewhere near the hotel to eat. Dont wanna eat at the hotel's restaurant as it's expensive and not nice at all. On the way back to hotel, bought Pringles from our favourite minimart, Comfort Mart, just next to our hotel. Checked out the books at the hotel books corner for books regarding Doi Suthep. Nothing that we dont already know. But there's not much information on it, as more tourist will sign up package to get there. We wanted to explore the area on our own, so we didnt sign up for any packages. Never mind ba. We will just go and check it out on the day after tomorrow.

Day 17 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-25T12:59:00.000+08:00

Day 17 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Went back to the cache shop. It's open but the person-in-charge was not around. There's dis thai guy looking after the shop. He dont understand wat we were talking about, so we just took pic and walked to Night Bazaar around. Ate MacDonald. Walked over to Ping River. Walked across Nawarat Bridge.

Saw people fishing in the Ping River. Walked over to Iron Bridge and walked back across the river.

The Iron Bridge is like those train bridge. Slimmer than Nawarat Bridge. One way for cars and a small pathway for people. Walked back to hotel. Rot! Went out for dinner. Thought of eating at somewhere new. But after walking a bit round, we went back to the roadside hawker for dinner. Our 3rd time at this hawker. Quite nice but a bit salty. The boss gave us a discount of THB10, or he calculated wrongly? Tot of buying some food back for supper but dont know wat to buy. Didnt buy anything and went back to hotel as we need to pack up and check out the next day to go back to Pai.

Day 16 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-24T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 16 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Felt very hungry when i woke up. My stomach was empty as i vomitted everything out the day before. Found like eat brownie. Went over to starbucks. No brownie, only chocolate cake. Ate and walked to Panthip Plaza, selling all the IT stuff, like funan centre. Lots of shop was not open. We stayed in the plaza to enjoy the aircon. Passing by the moat near Chiang Mai gate, we saw some kids playing in the moat. Dirty water and kids are allowed to play in it. Diving into the water and swimming across it.

While we were watching, they became more bold and climbed onto the tree and dived into the moat.

Tot they might want us to pay for the “entertainment”, we left after a few pic and video. Walked to a temple Sunday Market. Ate fruits and bought mango sticky rice and Pad Thai back hotel to eat. Rushed out for dinner at 6pm. Rushed back at 6.30pm to watch “Get a club” on Disney Channel. Keke... Found hungry after the movie but we were too lazy to go out to buy. Decided to go back to Pai the day after tomorrow as Pai.

Day 15 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-23T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 15 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) I was sick. Stayed in the hotel for the whole day. Eat, vomit, sleep. In the evening, i felt better and went out to ta bao dinner back home. Mike's Original, introduced by the cache creator. Back to hotel to eat and watch movie on HBO. Shark's Boy and Lava Girl. Vomitted again. Was super uncomfortable. Eat dinner, vomit dinner. Drink water, vomit water. SO took care of me the whole night asking me try not to vomit. My lips became pale and mind not thinking properly. He asked me to eat panadol. As watever i eat will be vomitted out, he asked me to chew the panadol before sallowing. Disguesting! Very bitter! Luckily after that Im able to sleep. Nothing much today, just uncomfortable the whole day! Thank him for taking care of me the whole day!

Day 14 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 14 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up and checked out. Walked around with our heavy bags to look for a new hotel. This time we will look for somewhere with aircon. Walked to Golden Fern. Asked for the price. THB350/night. Aircon, tv, fridge and hot bathroom. The room's clean. They asked us to fill up the form and went to our room to enjoy the air-con. Wow... feels so good with aircon. Went out for lunch and bought bottles of water back to the hotel. Watched tv. Out for dinner. Went to look for the cache near Chiang Mai City. Found the shop, but as the shop was not open, we were unable to find the person looking after the cache, therefore cant deposit our travel bugs in it. Disappointed! We will return another day in the day and hopefully the shop will be open. Bought tibits and back to hotel. Eat and sleep!

Day 13 of our backpacking trip (Photo attached)

2007-06-21T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 13 of our backpacking trip. (Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up and bath. Packed up everything and checked out. Checked into “Coconut Guesthouse”. Bath again as the weather was very hot. Went out to explore the area. Went over to Tha Pae Gate and started walking around the perimeter of Chiang Mai City. Reached Chang Puak Gate and decided to look at Chang Puak Bus Station to see how it look like. The bus station is smaller than Arcade Bus Station and lesser buses.

Ate ice creams. Walked back to Chang Puak Gate to continue walking around the perimeter. For lunch, we went to a noodles shop.

We dont know how to order, so we just point on the floor that we wanted. Eat until wanna vomit again and 2 cokes for only THB60. Which is abt SGD2.70. Super cheap but too far from our hotel. Continued walking till we came to Buak Haad Park. Sat on a beach and enjoying the dirty pond. People reading books, feeding the birds and sleeping.

Took some pic and continued our journey. Walked one round back to our hotel. 5 hours to walk round the perimeter of Chiang Mai City. Tink only we so mad to do dis. Back to hotel to rest for a while before we went out again for dinner. After dinner and bought some tibits to go back to hotel to eat. Back to the hotel to eat and sleep but the hotel was very hot! *Angry!* The first hotel was warm in the afternoon, this one warm at night. And the bed's full of bed bugs. Cant be help, continued to sleep and going to check out the next day!

Day 12 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-20T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 12 of our backpacking trip. (Pai, Thailand & Chiang Mai, Thailand) Woke up in quite a happy mood. Went to bath and breakfast at the reception. Saw one of the carekeeper of the hotel ironing our clothes. Wah so good ah. Wash clothes liao, still help us iron. After we finished our breakfast, we collected our clothing from them. Ask how much, they told us it's THB20. We were shock at first, as she told us before it's THB20/kg, and the weight of wat we gave them was abt 4kg. Going back to the room to pack the clothes into our bag, we found out that the clothes were still damp. Guess they were trying to iron to make it more dry and charged us lower as the clothes were not dry.

When to one of the postbox to post our postcard.

We checked out and left the hotel to the bus terminal to buy a ticket for bus to Chiang Mai.

The uncle introduced us to the mini-van which costed THB150 each but will reach Chiang Mai in 2.5hours. The bus will take 4 hours. We bought the mini-van ticket for 11.30am. As we wanted to drink the fruit shake from the restaurant we had our dinner the day before, we rushed to the restaurant and ordered a take away. Rushing back just in time for to board the mini-van. It was worth the rush, as the fruit shake was very nice and cheap. The mini-van drove very fast and as expected, it reached about 2.5 hours lata. We took a tuk tuk to the eastern side of Chiang Mai town to look for hotel.

We walked down the street and got ourselves a room at Little Home Guesthouse which cost THB300 for room with fan and hot water shower. We find it quite expensive but as our bags were very heavy, we got a room for a night.

After we put down our things, we walked out to look for a cheaper and better hotel. We came across “Backpacker's hotel” which was very dirty like they just finished renovating. Looking at the room with shared toilet, which costed THB100. But the girl introduced us to another hotel nearby. Coconut Guesthouse. Which costed THB200, fan, own toilet and tv. It was better than the “Backpacker's hotel”. So we told them we will return the next day to check in. We were just wondering if the owner of “Backpacker's hotel” knows that his worker actually introduced some other hotel to his customer or is this “Coconut Guesthouse” also under the same boss. No time to think, we were super hungry. Tot of looking for MacDonald, as we very long didnt eat Mac liao. But cant find so eat at a coffee shop beside the road. Walked around the street seeing temple and shops.

There was lots of shops that was closed. And it's only 4pm. Went back to hotel to put our things, we were to Chiang Mai night bazaar.

Thought that it's a place full of food. But it came out to be selling clothings and accessories. There's a street in the night bazaar selling food. We bought a packet of Lychee. The Lychee is very big and cheap. THB35 only. As we walked down the street, we saw Mac, Burger King and Subway. We got into Mac and ordered a Cheeseburger Meal, upsized. Wah, the upsized comes with Extra Large Coke and Extra Large Fries. And cost THB95. Finished eating, we walked back to hotel. Bath and eat Lychee. The Lychee's very sweet and lots of juice. We couldnt finish the whole packet. Keep for the next day ba. Sleeping time! Woke up in the middle of the night as it started to rain. Had to keep the clothings that are drying at the balcony. There was lots of moth flying outside. Too much to be not afraid of. Scary! Quickly moved the clothes to the side and went inside to continue slping.

Day 11 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-19T18:32:00.000+08:00

Day 11 of our backpacking trip. (Pai, Thailand) Woke up to check if the bird is still there. It was not there already. Probably flew away when the rain stopped. Sent our laundry for washing. Too lazy to wash our own laundry liao. Went out thinking to walk to one of the waterfall around. Came to the tourist centre. Looked at the map, and saw the waterfall was actually very very far away. Went for breakfast at a restaurant we had our breakfast the day before. Ordered a plate of sweet and sour vegetable and two plates of rice and drinks. Costing only THB130. SGD6. Started to dizzier. We walked back to the hotel to “nua”. Suddenly it started to rain super heavily. Luckily we didnt go to the waterfall, if not, we were be under the rain again. The stupid toilet leak again. Guess being bored is relaxing ba. So I'm actually relaxing! When out for dinner in the evening. Tunwa Restaurant. The food was nice and cheap.

Both of us eat until wanna vomit and it only cost THB145, which is about SGD7 only. Bought postcards and stamps. When back to hotel to write postcard to be sent out the next day. We will be leaving Pai the next day. When to collect our laundry, but as it was raining the whole day, it's not ready for collection yet. They asked us to collect it the next day's morning. Heard our neighbour quarreling to a guy. She was jealous that that guy talked to another woman or watever. Ears drop a bit. But as they lowed their volume during some part of the conversation, we didnt really know the whole story. Haha... not being kpo hoh... cos Pai got no tv or radio entertainment, so listen to people quarrel is also a form of entertainment mah. Irritating moth came into the hut. After throwing the moth out of the hut, we went to sleep.

Day 10 of our backpacking trip (Photo attached)

2007-06-18T23:59:00.000+08:00

try Day 10 of our backpacking trip. (Pai, Thailand) Went for breakfast at a restaurant in the morning. Went back to hotel to “nua”. Play fone games and went back to slp. Lunch at one of those home restaurant owned by this chinese woman. Order Pai Thai and Omelette Rice. Saw her used two ladle of oil to cook the Omelette. The Omelette was put on the rice and every grain of rice was coated with oil. Yuck! Another restaurant that con us. Pai Thai – THB25, Omelette Rice – THB35, Mango Shake – THB15, Watermelon Shake – THB15. But she collected THB100 from us. Haiz, nvm ba. Went back to hotel to do big business as our stomach was quite upset by the lunch we ate. Maybe becos of the amount of oil that has entered our body. “Nua” again. We went out to buy some tibits to eat for dinner as our stomach was still not recovered yet. We bought Eno at a Pharmacy. We ended up buying quite a lot of juke food from a supermarket. Started to rain. We were worried that our “house” will leak water, so we ran back under the rain. In Singapore people usually carry umbrella and continue walking under the rain but for here, people hide under shelter to wait for rain to stop. We were the only two person that was walking under the rain. Reached our hotel, the bathroom roof leaked. And it was splashing water into “dining area”. We quickly closed the door of the bathroom. As we were all wet, we decided to bath before we start eating our juke. Bathing under the rain. Luckily the “living room and dining room” was not leaking. When both of us finished bathing, we started eating and listening to the sound of the rain that was hitting on the roof of the house. Halfway, I looked up to the corner of the mosquito net and saw something. Went closer to take a look, it's actually a frog. A frog was on top of our mosquito net.

Well, means that there wont be any mosquitoes disturbing us tonight. But the fishy smell makes the room quite difficult to bear. We hit on another side of the net, the frog feeling the vibration it jumped onto the wall. Then onto the ground next to the bed. We used a box to “lead” it out to the door. It escaped to the gap of the door and jumped out. Going into the toilet to brush our teeth, we saw a bird on the lamp shade. Looks like the eyes was closed, but when we took a picture of it and zoom in, it's eyes was actually wide open.

Ppb the bird was sheltering from the rain. Didnt disturb it, we closed the toilet door and off the light. Hopefully the bird can sleep without the lights on. When wanting to close the window, we saw a spider forming a web from the window door to the light shade outside the house.

As we need to close the window to prevent the rain from getting in, we had no choice but to “destroy” its new built web. We oso notice a super big bug in the light shade outside the house. Well too much of discovery in one day, we off the lights and went to bed and hopefully the rain dont leak into the roof of our sleeping area.

Day 9 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-17T15:40:00.000+08:00

Day 9 of our backpacking trip. (Within Thailand & Pai, Thailand) Woke up at 6am. Started eating our tabits again. :P Everybody is still slping. Everyone started to wake up one by one. Uncle started helping us to pack up and fold back into seats. This uncle is not s pro s the black face uncle.

Reached Chiang Mai at 10am.

Took a tuk tuk to Arcade Bus station.

We took a bus to pai. 4 hours costing THB101 each.

The journey was so boring that I fell aslp 3 times. There was this army stop on the way and asked the Thai to produce their IC. When we came to us, he talked to us in Thai. As we dont understand wat he mean, we repled in English. He then ask us where we were from and we started Singapore. He demanded to see our passport and we handed our passport to him. He checked thru the passport very careful like scare we are illegal immigrate. Neway we reached Pai at about 2.30pm, actually the time that they say will reach.

We started looking for hotel. We walked to the end of Pai, near Pai river and got a room at Baan Pai River Side. THB150 only, hot water, fan and an excellent view of Pai river. The bed was covered with mosquito net. House made of bamboo.

This was our first time that we had a whole house. At the back of the house is the bath room and toilet. There were gap on the walls and ppb someone from the next house was able to see us bath. Ignored that I quickly went to bath as the weather is super hot.

Finished up watever food we had left, and sat outside the house enjoying the view and the sunset.

Went out for dinner. I ate Tom Yam Goong with rice. Mistaken green chill to long bean, it's so hot that cannot tahan. Went to a supermarket to buy an ice cream to eat. Went back to hotel and think we saw Milky way on the sky. The sky is full of stars and as this place is quite dark, we were about to see it. It's so nice! Can also hear the insect making noise and stupid neighbour playing guitar. Too tired liao so bathed again & hit the sack.

Day 8 of our backpacking trip (photos attached)

2007-06-16T15:32:00.000+08:00

Day 8 of our backpacking trip. (Bangkok, Thailand) Woke up at about 10am. Watched “Spanish” on HBO. Checked out at about 12pm and got a coupon for the free breakfast from the counter. The breakfast was very nice. 2 eggs, a few pieces of bacon and 2 slices of bread. I had never eaten such a generous free breakfast before. Anyway, when we were having breakfast, they played Strek 3 and we watched the whole movie. Saved on buying dvd liao :P keke... Took a bus to Hualumpong. Went to the wrong bus stop. Luckily the bus conductor alerted us before we got up the bus. We crossed over to the other side to take bus 53. We were needed to get down at one of the interchange and change to the same bus.

Dont need to pay again, juz show the bus conduct the ticket will do. Arriving in Hualumpong, the weather was super hot.

We found a cafe and bought 2 cans of soft drinks. Wow... THB60 in total. I tink everything in Hualumpong is expensive de loh. There was dis old Thai man who came to us to ask us to give him the bottle before we even started drinking. We tot of sitting there for 3 hours then go for dinner. But he was standing behind us, stressing us. So we quickly finished the drinks and gave him the can. We went to one of the seat to watch the giant tv. He called his Thai friend to inform her that we were in Bangkok. She came to meet us. She said that we can take the train from another station so she drove us to a coffee shop for dinner. That coffee shop is near Bang Sue station. The food is super nice, but as the sun shone into the shop, the whole place was like an oven. For 3 persons, it only cost THB180. Cheap and nice! She took us to a departmental store. We bought the shampoo and shower form. Sat at the food court to talk. At about 7.30pm, we left the place and went to Bang Sue station. Reaching Bang Sue station, suddenly it started to rain. Went into the shelter. The train came at 8pm. Said good bye to her, we went up the train quickly, scared that the train will drive away without waiting for us. On the train, found our seat. When the train go pass her, she waved to us and we waved back. This was the first time we had someone to wave at us. On the train, mostly old people, we sit next to an old and fierce looking woman. One of the crew started to set up bed for passengers juz like the last train tt we took. As we knew wat to do on the lower deck, we helped him to pull the bed open. Everybody in tt cabin started doing the same thing. Everybody was having fun, except tt old woman. Waited for the uncle to set up the bed for us, we went into the lower deck bed to eat our tabits.

Went to bed after tt. I slpt on the upper deck. It's colder and more shaky. Held onto the side of the bed, so I was afraid that I will fall off the bed.

Day 7 of our backpacking trip (Photos attached)

2007-06-15T15:14:00.000+08:00

Day 7 of our backpacking trip. (Bangkok, Thailand) Actually to the ticket, the train will reach at 9.50am (all time mentioned after this will be Thailand time). We woke up at about 7am. Wash up a bit and the crew came over to “convert” our bed back to seat. This crew that “convert” the beds is a 40+ years old male. His face is so black from the start. Even if we say “Thanks” to him, there will not be reply. But he can really “convert” bed very fast.

Keke... We sat there and waited as we see our “neighbours” waking up one by one. There is this uncle at his 30s travelling with his wife. He introduced themselves to us and tell us that he is selling things at Yishun. His wife is a Thai. And he offered us to stay in his house and he can bring us around Bangkok. He even gave us his number so that we can find him if we have out of place to go. He asked for our number, but we didnt give him saying that we have no Thai mobile line. Neway, he's a nice guy but a bit scare scare as we dont know him well. Reached Bangkok, Humlumpong at about 12.30pm. Our train is with aircon and once we got down the train, we were surrounded by heat. We were too use to the cool weather in Cameron for the pass few days that we were so uncomfortable with the weather here. We were super hungry. After buying the ticket for the next day from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we went to KFC to full our stomach with chickens. As we have been in Bangkok before, we knew the bus to take to Khao San Road, where all the backpackers hotel is.

We reached Khao San Road and checked into the hotel we stayed the last time, Sawasdee Krungthep Inn. It had changed a bit since the last time. It's cleaner now but of course a bit more expensive. We had a bath and went out planning to find cache near MBK. But as the weather was so hot, we rather stay indoor where there is air con. We also realized that the shopping centres were guarded with security check.

We were the only people in the big and “expensive” looking shopping centre wearing t-shirt and shorts. Anyway, we dont really give a damn. We were there just for the air-con. :P Went to tops at MBK. Bought watever we need to be eaten on the train tomorrow. Took a bus back to Khao San and bought lots of things back to the hotel to enjoy. Packed up our things to be ready to go the next day's afternoon. Our train will be at 7.30pm but we had to check out at 12pm. Breakfast will also be provided. We planned to sleep till 11am and eat breakfast with lunch at about 12pm (the staff say breakfast is from 8am to 12.30pm) so that we dont need to eat lunch. Such a good idea to be thrifty, or ... cheapo? Neway, we dont have much to spend, so we have to save a bit by a bit. Every cents counts.

Day 6 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-14T11:23:00.000+08:00

Day 6 of our backpacking trip. (Cameron Highland, Malaysia & Butterworth, Malaysia & within Thailand) Woke up at about 7am. Took our last pic with Twin Pine.

Travel by bus from Cameron at 8am to Butterworth at about 1.15pm. Stopped once at this place for toilet break.

Our usual plan is to stay at Butterworth for 1 night and take a train to Bangkok on the next day's train at about 2.30pm. But as we were in time we take the train that day, we bought the ticket.

The train journey starts from 2.30pm. We have never taken a train overnight before. It's a sleeper train, meaning there is bed for passenger to sleep over the night. It's in two deck, upper and lower deck. We took an upper deck and a lower deck one. I bought a magazine up on the train to read.

The train reached border and we need to get down and get the exit chop from Malaysia and the entrance chop from Thailand. Back on the train, a crew walked seat by seat asking if we wanna order dinner. We ordered 2 sets which cost THB150 each. Actually to the pic on the meal, it's like very nice and quantity quite a lot. The crew said that it will be delivered at about 1 hour. But we waited for 2 hours and finally the dinner came. We were so hungry by then. It tasted ok but the quantity is so little.

Luckily we got a can of corn. We opened up the can of corn and eat it with the dinner. Think we are the only passenger that has “side dishes”. Drinking the soup is also an experience. The train was so shaky and we got to wait for the “right” time to drink our soup. When we think we got the right time, we started drinking but the next moment the train started shaking again. Conclusion, there will never be a good time to drink soup on the train... Finished our dinner, the crew came to clear our table and set up the bed. Before they set up the bed, it's those normal seat facing next other. After they set up, it's those double decker bed with curtain. The crew even put on a new bedsheet, pillow case and also a new blanket for us. There's even curtain to prevent other people from seeing u when u r sleeping. This is how it look like at night.

At first we thought it will be very dirty but it's actually very clean. Before we go to bed, we open another can of sea coconut to eat. This is our first time sleeping on a train. The shaky'ness of the train didnt really affect my sleep as I'm very tired.

Day 5 of our backpacking trip

2007-06-13T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 5 of our backpacking trip. (Cameron Highland, Malaysia) Brought our clothes to laundry to wash cause in this weather, it's near to impossible for our clothes to dry after washing without dryer. Went to develop photos taken to be used for postcard. Had Nasi Lemak for breakfast. Super cheap MYR2 each only. And quite filling too. Back to the hotel. Got into the TV room to watch Madagascar on HBO. Finished movie,we wrote our postcard. And went to use the internet service to post my blog. Rot the whole day in the hotel until it's time to go and collect the laundry. Dinner at this Cantonese Coffee Shop. The owner act so high class and talked to us in Cantonese. As if we can understand like tt. When paying, she told us the amt in Cantonese and as we dont understand wat is she talking abt, we didnt pay her. She then translate it into English. Dumb! Back into the hotel to pay the hotel bill. Earlier on the male keeper asked us to pay the money to his wife in the evening. We went out in the evening to pay to his wife, but she asked us to pay to the male keeper. Wanna play Taiji even when collecting money. Went out at about 8.50pm, the male keeper is back. Paid him and went back to room to sleep.

Day 4 of our backpacking trip (photos attached)

2007-06-12T14:20:00.000+08:00

Day 4 of the backpacking trip. (Cameron Highland, Malaysia) Took breakfast at the Indian shop that we had our breakfast on day 1. Ate $9.70 worth of food but is only charged $9.50. This is the shop i will be going back. Cheapo meh? $0.20 only leh... :P We took the 10.30am bus to Brinchang. We reached the start of Trail 1 at 11am.

The beginning of the trail is still quite easy, just walking up the slope on normal dry mud track.

There was dis stream that we need to cross. Unable to jump over, we need to step on the rocks in the stream.

But as we got higher, the dry mud track has small rocks on it, makes it a bit difficult to walk on. Then the real challenge started. The trail leaded us to a vertical trail full of tree roots.

We have to step onto the tree roots to go on top. It's still ok at the beginning as the ground is still hard mud. As there's seldom people walking on the trail, the branches dropped onto the trail making it hard to walk.

We had to detour a few times from the dropped branches so that we can continue the trail. We met an Ang Mo couple on our way. Having them to stress us, we tried all way to prevent them to overtake us. Actually we tried not to touch onto the branches and ground at first but having the Kiasu spirit, we cling onto watever things that is convenience and safe. On the way, there's sign telling us how many more kilometres to Gunung Brinchang.

And there's also orange spray on the tree to lead us onto the correct direction. Tapes of sign “AWAS” was put up at some places to tell us that that direction behind the sign is dangers. The ground got wetting as we climbed higher. We tried to avoid stepping into the wet ground. But as some places, the whole ground is wet, we had to put our whole leg into the wet ground to cross it. We were enjoying the weather and taking peeps on the scenery whenever there's an opening of branches. As we got higher, we were in the clouds. Enjoying the cool air and the water vapour coming out from our breathe, it started to rain suddenly. We quickly get our poncho and waterproof bags out to cover ourselves and the camera. Luckily we were quite closed to the destination. We doubled up our pace. And finally we saw the giant antenna from the communication tower and we knew we are reaching. I was delighted. We walked at the side of the communication tower. And finally we reached Gunang Brinchang!
And heng didnt paiseh the Kiasu spirit, we reached there before the Ang Mo. The scenery is fogged out and we cant see anything. We just took picture of the broken “Gunung Brinchang” sign.

There's a shelter. We took our lunch under the shelter. The looks of my jacket, jeans and short when i reach the shelter.

Rest a while and started walking immediately after lunch as we dont want our muscle to ache. Anyway, we tried to look for the cache at Gunung Brinchang but i tink it's lost as the last person who found it is in year 2006. We walked down the hill to get back to Brinchang. It was still raining, so we had to use the poncho.

Lots of cars passed by us and people inside looking out at us. They wanna get to the highest peak of Malaysia, yet dont wanna to walk up by the jungle trail. Most of them seems like Singaporean. #$%^& We walked pass a Strawberry farm and got inside to use it's toilet.

Used the table and chairs at the shop to pack our stuff. The Indian keeper asked us if we wanna buy any strawberry, we were embarrassed to tell them we only wanna use his toilet, so we bought a piece of dry strawberry. The dry strawberry is not very nice and while eating, we were surrounded by houseflies. But of course we tried to prevent the houseflies from touching our strawberry. Left the farm after buying a bottle of water. We continued walking till we reached the BOH tea estate.
The plantation is very nice. But it closed at 4.30pm and by the time we reached the entrance is about 4.40pm already.

Continued walking... we came to a Bee farm selling honey. It's free, so we went inside to take a look.

Nothing much to see, so we left the place. Walked pass the vegetable market and some strawberry farm.
We finally reached Brinchang. We actually walked 13.58km in 7 hours. Waited for the bus to go back to Tanah Rata. Came at about 7pm. We were back to Tanah Rata and was very hungry so we ordered the family feast from MarryBrown. 8 pieces of chicken, 2 large fries, 2 mixed vegetable & 4 Pepsi. Finished eating and went back to the hotel to wash our shoes as our shoes were very very muddy. Hopefully it will be dry by 14 June morning. Back into the hotel room to finish watching POC. Slept at about 11.30pm.

Day 3 of our backpacking trip (photos attached)

2007-06-10T23:59:00.001+08:00

Day 3 of the backpacking trip. (Cameron Highland, Malaysia) Woke up at 9am. Brush teeth and breakfast (Bread with Ayam Brand Tuna). Walked to the bus terminal to take bus to Brinchang. Bus to Brinchang cost MYR1/person. Reached Brinchang at about 11am. Walked to Catcus Farm and strawberry farm.

Ate 2 strawberry ice cream, different taste and very nice. Also bought a small packet of strawberry for MYR5. The strawberry is so sweet that sugar is not needed.

Lunch at KFC. After lunch walked over to Sam Poh Temple. The statues are very big.

Walked over to trail 1 entrance but as it's too late, we decided to come back the next day to walk the trail. Walked back to bus stop to wait for a bus back to Tanah Rata . Reached bus stop at 3pm, but bus only came at 3.45pm.

Although the cab there also charge MYR1 per person to go to Tanah Rata, we insist of waiting for the bus as we are not in the hurry and enjoying the cool air and looking at how different their lifestyles are. Anyway we are not in a hurry. We reached Tanah Rata at about 4pm. Back to hotel and bath. Used internet for 1 hour, to post blog but the stupid thing deleted everything I have written after i finished writing. Stopped using internet 1 hour later. Walked out to main road to look for dinner at about 6pm. Settled at a Steamboad Restaurant.

Saw quite a lot of Singaporean eating there. There's a group of young fat Singaporean that asked for more meat and less vegetable in English, as if they dont know how to speak in Chinese. A total of 6 in the table and not even one know how to speak in Chinese? Act high class. So embarrassing to let people know we are from the same country. But of course I still love SINGAPORE la. :P Back to hotel to relax at the lobby. And went back to the room at about 10.30pm. Sleep.

Day 2 of our backpacking trip (photos attached)

2007-06-10T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 2 of the backpacking trip. (Cameron Highland, Malaysia) Woke up at 9am. Bath and it's very cold! Ate breakfast, bread & Gooby Spread. Went out at 10.30am, walked to Parit Fall using Trail 4. On the way there we used the O.R. Vending machine to fill up the waterbag. I was not feeling well and felt like vomiting. Had a sip of water and I vomited outside a hospital. Luckily not much people walked passed, cause I dont want to be brought into the hospital juz for vomiting. :P Felt better after vomiting. Continued our journey. Reached Parit Fall at 11.15am. Err... not as nice as it describe on guide book. It's juz a very short fall and with lots of rubbish at the corner of the fall.

We continued walking further down. Saw a sign board showing Water Tower's direction. Stamina is needed cause the trail is not straight and smooth. Not saying I got stamina la... me oso stop and rest for a few times. Got to climb up rocks and muddy around. Reached Water Tower and stay up there for a while enjoying the cool air. It shows the whole Tanah Rata.

Very nice and recommended for anyone that enjoy hiking. Walked back to the main road. Ate Tantori Set, peach tea and lime juice for only MYR11, nice to eat and cheap.

Not like the day 1 stupid conning restaurant. Will eat Tantori Set from this shop again before I leave the place. Went back to hotel to rest a while. Woke up and walked over to Convert School. They are having a mass at 4.30pm. We walked down the hill and thought of walking to Cameron Valley Tea House but gave up half way as it's too far. Walked into Oly Apartment thought of going Gunung Jasar. Saw this dog, one of it's eye was injured.

We walked towards the Trail 10 and the dog rushed in front of us seems to tell us to follow it. We followed it and thought it will bring us to Gunung Jasar. But instead, they bought us to one empty ground after another. Haha... Omg, i cant believe the second thing that con us for the trip is actually a dog. It's getting late so we walked back down to Oly apartment. The dog followed us too. We walked back to Marrybrown for dinner. Ordered Nasi Ayam MB and Chick-A-Licious. Walked back to hotel. On our way we bought 4 ice creams. Decided to do a review on all the ice-creams that I eat for the trip. :P keke... too boh liao liao. :P I'll post the review after the whole trip. It's very foggy and we cant even see the on-coming vehicle if they didn't on their headlight.

8pm, back to hotel to bath, cold as usual! Went into the TV room to watch TV. Polar express is played on HBO. Dont quite understand as we started watching half way. Didnt finish the whole movie, we went back to our room to watch Pirate of the Carribean 2 on the laptop. Watched half way, felt hungry, went out to buy supper. Bought Ayam Brand Tuna for tomorrow's breakfast. Cream of corn, Baked bean and Pringles Tomato Salsa(not nice to eat) for supper. When back to the hotel to watch POC and eat supper. Slpt without finishing POC.

Day 0 & 1 of our backpacking trip (photos attached)

2007-06-09T23:59:00.000+08:00

Day 0 of the backpacking trip. (Singapore) Reached somewhere near Golden mile at 10pm. My bro drove us there. We board the bus at about 10.30pm. Bus departed at about 10.30pm. Reached 2nd Link at about 11pm. Reached Malaysian Custom at 11.20pm. On the way to Cameron, stopped for toilet break for 3 times. After the last toilet break, the road became jumpy and not smooth. Felt like vomiting as it's too bumpy. Reached Tanah Rata. We alighted and looked for a toilet and Daniel's Lodge. Cant find Daniel's Lodge so we end up at Twin Pine Hotel. At Twin Peak at about 8am, started unpacking our things and went walking around Tanah Rata, Ate breakfast at this Indian Restaurant, Restaurant Kumar. Ate 2 egg with onion prata and 2 plain prata. Bought bread and Gooby for dinner, thinking that we dont have money for dinner. But when we were back to hotel, we calculated the money and found that we had spare. So we went out for a real dinner. Ate something for $8 but end up paying $10. Kana con by the stupid restaurant. SRI BRINCHANG, never going back again... Back to hotel at 8.30pm to bath but we were too tired that we fell asleep without bathing.

080607 - The Day : Backpacking starts 2night

2007-06-08T18:48:00.000+08:00

Counting down the hours to board the coach.

Everything packed, everything done even finish mending my torn jeans.

Still thinking what have I missed out. Think nothing liao ba...

The pic on the right is how my bag looks like. This bag will be with me for the next few weeks... And hopefully it dont give way to the load.

Will be eating dinner at home then my bro will be driving us to golden mile to board the bus. He so good rite :P

Hopefully nothing happen and tmr's now i will be at cameron wearing thick thick jacket eating steamboat. Yeah!

Will upload the blog as and when i can. :D

Good month everybody and enjoy urself working or studying cos im going for my backpacking. Hahahaha!!!...

070607 - One more day to go...

2007-06-08T10:57:00.000+08:00

Started packing our things into the bag not much things to pack. I brought:

2 pcs of t-shirts
1 pair of 3/4 shorts
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of slipper
Toiletries
First Aid Kit
Passport & Travel book
Geocaching items
Documents
Spare Contact Lens
Towel
Poncho

That's all. But until my mum is back, she increased the items :P Luckily earlier on I didnt pack so much, cos i know she surely will wan me to bring more things de. Keke...

Ping wanna Xiang to send her the pic tt he took. She say is very nice. :D Keke...
Chat with Lei and Ping... Talked abt Day 3 camp stuff. Laugh until my stomach pain. Lei really too use to the "N.B" word until on msn she oso will type out. Hahaha.

Heard from Xia that Chiang Mai's night is very cold... Actually we knew abt it... but just tt dont know it's tt cold. So means that I cant throw away my jacket after Cameron.

Ended my day early so that I can wake up early tomorrow so that I can slp in the coach tmr night on the way to Cameron.

060607 - Count down 2 days more to our backpacking

2007-06-07T10:38:00.001+08:00

Nothing much today...

Wake up at abt 10.30am. Started working... until lunch time when i meet my boyfriend at tpy for lunch and change currency for our backpacking trip. we now have 1000MYR and 10,000THB for the trip. Hopefully it's enough. When to get back my Alpha TB from the playground Bounty Cache as i wanna drop it at either Malaysia or Thailand.

Ate Chicken Rice for dinner. After dinner, work again. Tomorrow will be the date line to submit the assignment, so now have to work harder to finish it before we go for our backpacking.

050607 The day after GG LTC Camp

2007-06-06T00:56:00.000+08:00

This is my very first blog and i felt weird telling the whole world abt wat i did for tt day.

Actually im not a very interesting person so there is not much things that i will do in a day.

I just came back from GG camp yesterday. The camp was very fun. The afternoon sun shone on us while we cooked our lunch. Lei and Shan cooked the meal, while Leen and Xia looked aft the girls. Day 1 didnt end with sleeping. Day 1 night we had happy hour eating Mac supper. As the mac near our sch is closed, Rong Shan's bro bought the supper over to us. He's so nice. This is the first time in so many years that Lei is staying over night with us. She showed us the video of an Alvin guy and also picture taken in US. Day 2 when Xiao Ping came, the camp got funner. She showed us her new braces. It looks ok on her. And she has slimmed down and look better now. Anyway, she is still so crappy. Joke and chat with us while we cooked our meals with firewood. I feel that sitting together infront of the fire, chatting abt wat happen is the most enjoyable part of the camp. Day 2 night we had happy hour again, but without Shan, Lei and Leen. They went home cos they need to go to work or school on Monday. So sad. Day 2 night is the most tiring. I wrote small notes to put in all the guides "mail box". But nearly fell aslp when writing the last one. Dont know if there is any spelling mistake a not. :P Anyway, we went to slp in the tent with Ping slping beside and keep on disturbing me to go out to see the stars in the open space. Dont care her, me fell alsp very quickly as I was so tired. Day 3, nothing much happen except the heavy rain at abt late morning while we are drying up the tent... wat a time to rain. Luckily the tent is abt to dry off at the concourse. Went home and take a bath and slpt at 11.30pm.

Slpt till 11am when my SO came to my hse buying breakfast for me. After breakfast we went back to slp for a while more and woke up to finish some work.

My SO wanna to buy a new phone so we went to HDB hub Hello to see wat fone to buy. Hmm... all the fone look idiot to us as we are used to using PDA fone. But as we dont quite need PDA fone neway, we decided to buy normal fone. He bought a Nokia 5300. Got a $30 off all phone and 10% discount to all accessories. Luckily we came today. :D

When to a clinic opposite my hse to ask if we need to take any injection for our oncoming backpacking. The doctor say dont need. We were so relieved.

Bought 3 tea egg from the Pasamalum and 2 packets of sliced chicken hor fan back home to see. Watched tv and tried out the new fone.

10pm, it's time for my SO to go home. We took back some of work home to do. He's so helpful, although I know he dont quite like to do it, he still will help. :D Glad I have him.

Bath. Online with him and Xiao Ping told me abt her blog. Went over to read thru her blog. But couldnt seems to refresh the new post that she just posted. So angry. Probably try tmr.

Phuket 2006 , Day 4

2006-05-03T22:53:00.000+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2006/03/05/phuket-2006-day-4/

Phuket 2006 , Day 2

2006-05-03T22:15:00.000+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2006/03/03/phuket-2005-day-2/

Phuket 2006 , Day 3

2006-03-04T22:46:00.000+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2006/03/04/phuket-2006-day-3/

Phuket 2006 , Day 1

2006-03-02T22:12:00.000+08:00

http://www.fifthoctober.com/travel/2006/03/02/phuket-2005-day-1-2/