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Day 7 and a half: Karma Strikes

  • Dec. 14th, 2009 at 10:45 PM
Wan Ting came down with a fever this morning and she's been feeling under the weather the entire day.

Just earlier tonight, I felt a bit uneasy and then started getting diarrhea. So both of us are probably down with food poisoning. Especially since I threw up not long ago.

I felt better after throwing up but now I don't know if I can take my meds again. Ate a banana and drank lots of warm water and am sitting in bed, LJ-ing in the dark, listening to the Vietnamese going crazy on the streets outside.

The banana is good, but I think I should save the other one for Wan Ting.

This is probably karma for making fun of Janus so much when he went all loopy after getting mabok on alcohol a few nights ago. Hahahaha. Is still funny though.

Imma rest now. Hopefully we'll be fine in the morning for the bus ride to Nha Trang! Night!

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Batam day trip.

  • Dec. 14th, 2009 at 9:06 PM
Wonderful time at Batam yesterday with Sadiq, Kak Lis, Abg Nur, Kak Alia & husband! It was just a one day trip, specially catered for spa and seafood! All of us had the reviving spa treatment and it sure was good... During that 2.5 hours session, the knots in my body seemed to have loosen up and Sadiq must have really enjoyed it the most eh? (He woke up at 8 a.m. today, thank God I called macam nak gile.)

After the spa session, we had mani and pedi too. Cost us about $155/couple for a total of 4.5 hours session, darn cheap and worth it lah. We then had seafood at Golden Prawn as per usual, and what can I say, Batam never fails me. From the spa to the seafood. Loved every second of it. Thank you Kak Lis for organising this! :D

Struck me that the last time we went there was also in December 2008. So aper lagi, let's make this an annual thingy okie! Hehehe.

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Day 7: Ho Chi Minh, Cu Chi Tunnels

  • Dec. 14th, 2009 at 8:13 AM
Waiting for breakfast at the moment. Janus is on the computer, I'm LJ-ing on my phone, and Wan Ting may be down with a fever in bed. :(

I smell eggs.

Anyway, we're heading out to the Cu Chi Tunnels today. I hope I won't get bitten any more because I'm positively itching all over. I have bites all over my arms and face. FACE, OKAY. I have one right under my right eye. What on earth!! The mosquitoes aren't as vicious here than in Phnom Penh though. I don't think I got any bites last night. Phew.

Updates again later. I'm still far from done on my entry on the last day of Phnom Penh. Eventful, eventful day. Hahaha.


Alrighty. Back from the Cu Chi tunnels.

It was crazy cramped, and we didn't crawl all the way through. I think we only managed 20m before we clambered out again. Haha.

But I was really amazed at the resourcefulness, creativity and determination of the people. When you're trying to survive, I guess you're willing / have no choice but to do things like staying underground in cramped conditions for YEARS on end. It's really dismal, but one cannot help but marvel. The crazy traps they built out of shrapnel? Horrifying, but genius in its simplicity.

The tour bus/minivan that came to pick us up was surprisingly packed with Singaporeans! It was a 2 hour drive out to the tunnels, so we made some friends. Two Canadians, one French lady, a Filippino lady, and 5 other Singaporeans. Awesome.

The Filippino lady was hilarious. Raiza, I think her name is. Total alcoholic and perpetually excited/animated. The Canadian guys were Cole & Brad, the Singaporeans were Chris, Leslie and David. I forgot the French lady's name cause it was complicated. And uh, we didn't catch the names of the other two because they weren't friendly at all.

After the tunnels, the minivan dropped Cole & Brad off at the War Remnants museum and we tagged along. Nothing spectacular, but the photos of the Agent Orange victims were really sad. The torture instruments and holding cells gave me the chills, but those at the Tuol Sleng museum were worse. Most of the museum was projecting a rather skewed point of view though. But I guess that's normal. Atrocities are atrocities afterall.

We went for an early dinner (or late lunch, however you see it) with the Canadian guys, and found out that our guesthouses are directly opposite each other. Lolll.

We're supposed to meet David for dinner with his local friend, but I think we'll skip that cause it's far out. And there's gonna be crazy celebrations in town if Vietnam wins the match against Cambodia tonight. Staying in. He's travelling free and easy, so we may bump into him at Hanoi again. :)

Pretty good day. Imma head down to my mart tonight (there's a mart here called Chin Chin Chin! I'll take a picture later) to find some chocolate milk. Have been deprived of Milo!!!

Bus to Nha Trang tomorrow. Apparently it's gonna rain. :( I hope not.

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Random Videos of the Day.

  • Dec. 14th, 2009 at 1:32 AM
I feel bad for neglecting to post any substantial entries here for quite some time.

Fear not! I have survived my perilous journeys across our volatile Mother Earth.

I braved fierce storms at sea as I crossed the Indian Ocean.

Fought off bloodthirsty sharks (with frickin' lasers on their head) as my ship ran aground - therefore inciting me to panic and dive into the sea - at Christmas Island.

Almost had my nose fall off in -30°C weather in North China.

Eluded and successfully evaded capture from the SSDNK (State Security Department of North Korea) after crossing the border into the DMZ.

Feigned cluelessness after being briefly detained while attempting (and failing miserably) to act as harajuku as humanly possible in Tokyo followed by an inquisition (not an interrogation) by Japanese secret service - Public Security Intelligence Agency.

Battled jet lag as I scoured the outback Downunder and resisting the urge to bring back a kangaroo. Frustratingly, the Japanese had already tipped the ASIS and I was constantly stalked by agents who were armed with what I could've sworn were boomerangs.

Finally ended the leg of my journey after gathering enough rarely seen videos and trekked the dark, foreboding forests of Malaysia and sneaking back into Singapore but not before being fucking detained - AGAIN - by the ISD who were adamant that I was the ringleader of a cult which worshipped aliens and Tom Cruise's penis.

As promised, take a gander at my selection of Random Videos of the Day. Enjoy!


This has to be by far, the best blooper reel I have ever watched.



This is just so freaky that I don't even need to place a clever caption here.



Guy is working late at the office housed in a skyscraper. Guy heads downstairs for a cigarette. Guy gets in the elevator to go up his life pretty much started getting fucked up from there. Why, you ask? Trapped in an elevator for forty-one hours.



Kill me now.





Being a Star Wars geek, I cannot help but take a jab at Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek too but Darth Vader could easily prison rape Captain Jean-Luc Picard in a face-off.




I shall end this post with a sombre reminder of how much The Sopranos rock. I've been watching it non-stop from the first season. I'm up to the penultimate season now. :(




Last one. Words escape me now. This is why you shouldn't home-school and over-protect your child. Asperger's Syndrome will make your child an outcast or just plain fucking weird, as evident in this video. He is not acting in jest, mind you.
*facepalm*




With that, I shall bid adieu to you merry ladies and gentlemen who peruse my LiveJournal entries. I hope you enjoyed the videos! More will always come as my chivalry and valiant deeds conquer the darkness.





Umar ~*

Day 6: Bus to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

  • Dec. 13th, 2009 at 6:47 PM
Crossed the Moc Bai border to Vietnam today. We actually had to cross the Mekong river, and the entire bus drove up this ferry like thing. It was a bit scary looking, but surprisingly steady. You wouldn't have known you were on a ferry. Haha.

We only got here at 2pm. Lazed around in our guesthouse, cooling down from the insaneeee heat.

Our room has no wifi btw. :( Sadness. We visited the Central Post Office and the Notre Dame Cathedral earlier on (boring!). In a cafe right now leeching wifi. Heh.

Going for pho later!!! Will update a lot more about yesterday if I can get hold of the sole computer in the guesthouse.

ETA: The receptionist is so hilarious. He just rambles on and on and on. Heeee.

Oh, and we totes have wifi. Awesome!

The traffic in Ho Chi Minh is vicious though! The people are so much more aggressive and they go much faster too. D:

Thought Phnom Penh was bad when we got there from Siem Reap, but Ho Chi Minh traffic takes the cake. You get a heart attack everytime you try to cross.

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Day 5: Phnom Penh

  • Dec. 13th, 2009 at 2:21 AM
I typed a whole entry and it's gone again and it's a bit late to type it out again. It's 1plus in the morning and we just got back from a pub that Han's dad brought us to. It was set up by Singaporeans and we went there to give a little support.

So like Janus is TOTALLY DRUNK. And we're completely laughing our asses off OMGGG. HAHAHAHAHAHA it's hilarious. Help.

Gotta wake up early for the bus tomorrow. Will pack and try not to laugh. Hahaha. Blog again from HCM!


Addendum:

So we got up early in the morning to head out for some ATV biking by Blazing Trails. OMG AWESOMEST EVAHHHH.

The company is actually pretty new. Set up by two French guys and started operations only earlier this year. They told us that they haven't gotten a lot of business so far, so we should post some reviews and spread the word. We also snapped a few photos along the way and they told us to send it to them so they could put it up on their website. Hee.

But it was honestly awesome. We only signed up for the one hour package because it was the cheapest and we are poor like that. Ahhh I so wanted to get more time on the bike. It was so so so so fun!!!

For USD15, it was actually a pretty good deal. It actually included a 45min visit to the Killing Fields too. Then a one hour ride in the countryside. They were very generous with the time, actually. We took about an hour at the fields, and they took us around the village for about an hour and a half instead of an hour.

It still wasn't enough! D:

Wan Ting and I totally have no experience with motor vehicles at allllllll, but it was easy to get a hang of it. I kept revving a little too much and shoot forward, but that was all part of the fun! Haha. Once we get onto a straight, smooth path, the speeding was just exhilarating.

Along the bumpier paths, it was a little tougher to navigate, but the pot holes were awesome to ride over. Except when you almost swerve into a ditch. Lol. The craziest part was crossing this rickety old bridge. Well, I'm glad I didn't fall in.

Anyway, because we were driving around the village, there were a lot of children, cattle, chickens and random animals running around. And people on their bikes and stuff. So, the chickens are really stupid. They freak out so much from the noise and just run right into your path. I almost ran over one. Hahahha. I did run over cow dung too omg. I was trying to avoid it, but there was just too much dung lying around, so I inevitably ran over some... and it flewwww everywhere aaaaaaah!!! Good thing Wan Ting was a good distance away or she'd have gotten a face full of it.

Ahhh, it was just amazing, and I really do want to go for it again. A full day trail the next time I can afford to! Haha. Which is forever.

After the ATV biking, we got back to the guesthouse to clean off most of the gunk and filth off ourselves before meeting Wan Ting's classmate's dad. He has been a fantastic host, bringing us around to places to eat, drink and head out to areas we wouldn't have found in the first place. For lunch, he took us out to a remote location by the river for some seafood. Really peaceful, quiet location. Good view and good food. The bill came up to quite a bit but he refused to let us pay! Omg.

After lunch, he dropped us off at the Royal Palace so we could do some sightseeing. Eh, it was kind of a ripoff. Boring stuff. Just pretty architecture that we all couldn't fully appreciate. There was a huge garden that looked really nice but it was cordoned off. Psh.

He took us out for dinner and drinks again after. I'm gonna go to bed now so I'll add on more stories soon, y'all. I HAVE PLENTY. HAHAHA.


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It's the weekends, yeeha!

  • Dec. 11th, 2009 at 11:05 PM
I definitely surprised myself yesterday when I heard those words coming out from my mouth. Sorry, but don't like means don't like lah. Ada paham? :)

After work today I met up with Ida after such a long time. We had been planning to meet since I don't know when but because of the boys' work and body schedules (this probably applies more to Mr. S whose battery needs to be recharged after work of late), we ended up not meeting at all. Today was different, though.Well, we were actually supposed to meet up with the boyfriends along, but Mr. S wanted to do OT and Mr. N only finished work much later. So we decided - impromptu date it shall be! To Tampines where we had BBQ Korean (yes I'm pretty obsessed about the Chicken Olio there, but Tamp 1's outlet not that nice, so disappointed) and ice-cream. I would like to say that Mudpie McFlurry is simply delish la.

Me : Omg. I so need to tell you something!
Ida : I have alot of things to tell you also!!!

True enough we did have major things to update each other about. :O SO MANY THINGS, it's unbelievable.

This is random, but we were also talking about MTS - when they were gonna call us up for the briefing. I logged on to my Gmail when I reached home, and what a coincidence, there was an e-mail at 7ish which I think was the time we talked about it at Macs. Macam tahu je kite tgh berbual pasal tu.

Okay dah, off to play Bejeweled Blitz on FB. And oh, have a good weekend people!

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Meant to visit the Russian Market today, but I pointed out the wrong thing on the map and we walked all the way and got nowhere. Lolol shyte.

So we didn't have time left and headed straight for the Tuol Sleng Museum. Wow. It was a really eerie experience. The place was pretty much left as it is, barbed wires, holding cells and all. There were paintings hanging over torture instruments, showing us how the prisoners were tortured. These paintings were done by one of the survivors.

Went into the block where the prisoners were kept, and it was just horrifying to imagine what it must have been like. It was awful, cramped, and you can just imagine sitting in the tiny 0.8 x 2m cell just waiting for death.

They also had pictures of the prisoners - rows and rows and rows upon rows of them. And it wasn't even complete, I'd bet. There were pictures of young children, some who looked as young as 4.

It just really hits you when you realise how recent in history this was - you could be walking in the street and there's probably a pretty good chance of passing or walking by someone whose loved ones were victims of the regime. Sobering thought.

We head out to the Killing Fields tomorrow. That'll be another depressing trip.

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Day 3: Bus to Phnom Penh

  • Dec. 11th, 2009 at 12:00 AM
Took a bus to Phnom Penh early this morning.

Siem Reap had the feel of a really sleepy town, and the difference between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap became really obvious once we got on a tuk-tuk and headed to our guesthouse. The roads were really busy and had a lot more cars.

It's very evident how the pace of life is much faster, and it kinda feels more dangerous too. Probably why Wan Ting's classmate called it a cowboy town. Does have some truth to it though.

We were out for dinner with Wan Ting's classmate's dad, who works here. Funny guy. Haha. He drove us around so we didn't have to explore on foot at night. It did look very unsafe. And he was telling us how he got robbed at gunpoint before!! Omg. And the police patrolling the city actually carry AK-47s. Oh gosh. I'm not stepping out of the hotel after 7. We will find some entertainment somehow.

Our hotel room is huuuge though. Pretty awesome. Janus has his own mini room within our room now and he doesn't have to sleep on a pull-out bed in the middle of both our beds. Hahahaha. When you're a guy travelling with girls, you automatically get the shitty bed.

Finally get to wake up late tomorrow morning. Exploring the town on foot, since everything is within walking distance. We're off to the Russian Market and the Tuol Sleng Museum tomorrow, then to the Killing Fields (ATV biking!!!) and the Royal Palace the day after.

Oh gosh it feels like I've been travelling for a week already. Time just doesn't pass quite normally here.

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Dec. 10th, 2009

  • 11:32 PM
COLLECTION 28, 11TH DECEMBER FRIDAY AFTERNOON!




Hello! Am working Office hours from 14th, Monday onwards, Replies can only be made at night. :)

ENTER COLLECTION 28 )

Day 2: Siem Reap, Angkor Wat

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Back from Angkor Wat! We managed to get up for the sunrise. Taking a break before we head back for the sunset. :)

Ta Keo was also death-defying (crazy, crazy stairs), but we totally conquered it. Many awesome pictures to come! I took some with my E71 so I can upload those on Facebook first.

To Phnom Penh tomorrow!

Day 1: Siem Reap

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Oh gosh I typed out a whole post and then it didn't get through!! :/

Landed in Siem Reap and the international airport was quite cool. Won't be able to post pictures because I don't have a cable and the computer terminals are always occupied. But you can google it. Haha.

We got to the hotel in the early morning and the manager, Mr. Kim has been an absolutely delightful host. The guesthouse is clean and up to standard, and the people are so willing to help. :) We also met fellow Singaporeans here on a YEP recce trip.

Anyway, we needed to break our bills so we headed out after breakfast to get some toiletries, then explore the town. We were done exploring in like, 15min. Hahahaha omg best evah. There really isn't anything much. I guess Angkor Wat is the main attraction.

So we lazed around the room and watch TV. LOL.

But we did head down to Happy Ranch for some horseriding. Holy crap! The tuk-tuk ride was all sorts of crazy. Crazy death-defying fun!! The roads were riddled with potholes so I flew outta my seat several times. Hahahaha.

The horse ride itself was also brilliant because they took us through a village for about an hour. My guide, Su Khom, was amazing. He's only 20, but he was super friendly and tried his best to answer my questions as best as he could in English. He was pretty good, really, despite 1hr lessons on a weekly basis.

He was really curious about us because they apparently don't get many foreigners or tourist from our side. Maybe an occasional American or so. The rest were from within Cambodia and already familiar with horses. So he doesn't have to walk them through the trail. Eesh, I felt bad, but he was awesome. :)

He even asked if we were gonna be back anytime soon, but I said maybe, if I had the time to. Haha. I would like to, then maybe I could ride the horse at a trot instead of a saunter.

By the way, my horse is named Diamond. Awesome match, no? His Khmer name is Apek, but IDK what that means. Lol.

Angkor Wat for sunrise tmr omg!! Exciteded! I hope we can get up!

Had an excellent dinner earlier today so imma take a shower now and just crash. Heh. Night! More soon!

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Carnivorous

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Mum: It's only when I have to teach your brother that I realise why animals want to eat their young.

Noev ey na bongkun?

  • Dec. 8th, 2009 at 12:15 AM

So I'm supposed to be flying off in less than 6 hours. I should be asleep.

Heeee.

I'm supaaah excited, but also v afraid that I'm gonna forget to bring something. Which, according to my dad, is not possible because I seem to be packing the whole house into my bag. It's about 7kg right now. And that's after I decided to cut a few things out. Eep. Also, my hand-carry weighs about 3kg. I'm pretty sure our bags are only going to get heavier along the way, and my bag doesn't actually have space for more. Hahaha.

I wanted to bring more long-sleeved clothes, because I realised that it's only going to get colder and colder as we travel up north of Vietnam. Oh gosh, I didn't even know. I kind of just assumed the lowest was going to be about 25 degrees Celsius or something. Turns out 20 is more like a high. LOL. Imma freeze my butt off in Hanoi. Excellent.

Right now, I'm jotting down a few key Khmer phrases in my handy dandy notebook. It's super tough, but I shall master the two most important things first - "Hello I'm lost" and "Where is the toilet?"

Vietnamese is somewhat better, but they have lots of different intonations (more so than Mandarin), so I may accidentally ask to buy a cow instead of asking for directions. You know, stuff like that.


So anyway, do not fearrrr! I will be back on Christmas! Don't miss me too much, y'all! I will try and update along the way if I get free Wifi or manage to kick someone off the computer terminals in our hotels. :D

P.S. I ate my malaria pills, and they are horrendously gross. I suspect I won't even have the resolve to follow through for the next 28 days. Hahaha. We will see. Meanwhile I'm planning to steal Wan Ting's army strength insect repellent to apply generously all over my clothes.

Let's keep it under wraps.

  • Dec. 6th, 2009 at 11:48 PM
For once, I feel that some things should seriously not be displayed out in the open.

Malaria everywhere!!!

  • Dec. 6th, 2009 at 1:53 AM


In approximately 2 days, I will be flying off to Cambodia & Vietnam! Woooooo, that's fast!

Total awesomeness.

Been MIA on LJ for a bit - will attempt to update before I leave. Will also attempt to update during my trip if I can. :D

Let's hope my cheap underwater camera works so I can get awesome pictures from the kayaking expedition in Halong Bay. Man, these film cameras feel so ancient.


DECEMBER IS TOTALLY GONNA BE EPIC. Best month evahhhh. <3

Of weddings and engagements.

  • Dec. 5th, 2009 at 11:55 PM
This year alone, three of my good friends' sisters got married, not forgetting my sister as well. This probably means that the next generation would be the adik-adiks, which means kita-kita lah. 'Cause next year, I hear wedding bells ringing for some, or engagement ones for the others. Even the boyfriend's friends are getting hitched one by one and that scares him for some reason.

This always comes out from me each time he squirms at the idea of it: You tengok je, by the time you naik pelamin, kawan-kawan you agaknyer dah beranak-pinak dah.

Somehow, a particular thought keeps floating in my head each time I think of marriage. Kita merancang, hanya Tuhan menentukan. Hands up all of you who thought that Friend A would get married first (due to his/her long-term relationship / miangness / etc etc) and ta-daa! turns out Friend B is the first one to start the ball rolling?

I was invited to doll a friend up for her engagement day today and I'm truly grateful to her for having such trust in me. Especially since I've never done anything like this. I still remember her words to me prior to this; she told me not to worry and to have fun doing it, and definitely, I really had fun dolling her up. Thank you once again dear, and I wish you all the best to your new beginning! :)

Will post pictures soon, meanwhile hope you had a good Saturday people, because I sure did. Looking forward to tomorrow; no specific reason actually, but I think I'll ask Mr. Squirmy out. Rindu banget ler. I think this is what happens when you are too used to seeing each other everyday. Satu hari tak jumpe je dah macam suffer from withdrawal symptoms. Hehe.

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Here's to an awesome month.

  • Dec. 4th, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Seriously, nothing can make me feel really grumpy for long in December. Even our squabbles last less than fifteen minutes. Like normally, we'll bounce off negative text messages to each other, basically saying silly things which would only provoke the other to do the same. Notice how when you're angry, angry thoughts tend to processed much faster and thus you end up typing like a bullet train, and only in fifteen minutes then you'd realise you'd sent each other more than 10 text messages. Of course, it doesn't stop there, it goes on and on and on, until either one doesn't bother to reply anymore.

But because it's December, and technically it's our first argument this month... Our squabble ended in like twelve minutes and we only sent a total of three angry messages to each other! Amazing much.

It'd have certainly killed my TGIF mood if the otherwise happened. That made my day. Another thing made my day too, which was a message from Ibu.

"Oh ibu sehat kat sini.nw at mekkah.htl jt infront of masjid.so asar sampai insyak ibu stay jer kat masjid.luv u al n tk care"

We'll probably be bringing Ayah out tomorrow night. I can really tell that he's quite bored just staring at the telly alone sometimes. Fret not, we'll go and watch the big screen together if all goes as planned, Daddy! :D

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Tweet Cloud

  • Dec. 4th, 2009 at 2:21 PM
This is my freshly generated Tweet Cloud not made from water vapour but words that I use most frequently on Twitter:



words (ordered by most used)

  • world
  • thanks
  • life
  • name
  • love
  • please
  • haha
  • people
  • cool
  • night
  • time
  • girls
  • makes
  • living
  • office
  • saying
  • miss
  • home
  • penny
  • weeks
  • sounds
  • shit
  • called
  • damn
  • wanna
  • tweet
  • write
  • hands
  • mean
  • crazy
It's a lot more positive than I thought it would be. Great!