Locked Out

Isya requested i Blog more about whats happening in my life these days. What better time to start than now, when i'm locked outside the house?

No, i did not forget my keys, Sue Lin never does that... Except when i was in Chiang Mai, i did that 3times in a row! Anyway i'm locked out now cuz there aren't enough keys.

Awful day to get locked out. Its an extremely hot afternoon n i forgot to bring a rubberband to tie my hair!

Thank goodness i found a pin on the ground, now my hair is tied in a bun. Thank goodness for mobile internet, i Facebooked n emailed for 2hours.
Thank goodness for the water cooler too.

But dam i need to pee now. And damn my phone's battery is low...

Bin Da Bat

The monks and novices do a daily walk around Luang Prabang's Old City at the crack of dawn every morning, receiving alms.

Our Slow Boat friends decided to meet at 5am, when it was still pitch black, to wait for them to come out

We were stalked by Laos ladies trying to sell us rice and biscuits... they'd run to any guesthouse that opens a door!

Some of us bought the stuff, while some of us were firm in saying no. We had a morning cup of coffee while waiting.

We werent the only ones waiting

They'd come from up the street and head down the next street

So many of them, that i was able to take photos from different angles

We dont understand why the nuns in white are the ones who will give food to the long line of novice monks in orange...

Tourists would buy the food from those morning lady stalkers to give to monks

Guy in the cap, GS is one of our friends, from Austria. He and sister were backpacking greater Mekong together, very inquisitive people, showed a great deal of interest in the locals and in foreigner friends too!

I like the French colonial buildings in the immediate background and the misty mountains in the distance =)

Rolled out of bed, groggy me. We were all hanging out till late the night before!

The Slow Boat Crew hanging around! Haha, i went walk to the other corner of the street

A little different on this part. Tourists - check. But over here, there are poor people, begging for food.

On this part, the monks receive the food and then subsequently donate some...

Some tourists are so rude, he was really in their face. Even put in his camera in between the monks to take a picture of the baskets they were holding! Do u really need to do that?

Good pictures, if i say so myself, can be taken from behind one of those Chiang Mai songtao thingie - those 4 wheel drive with modified backseats... but in Laos they just call it tuktuk

New Shoes

Used to be a Nike girl but switched to Adidas in 2007 =) My old pairs failed me after a good 3 years of work. Time to get a new pair but ended up with two !

Fell for the buy-one-get one-half-price gimmick! Love!

I wore the dark pair to the gym and the Aussie Chinese girl next to me said "We have the same pair of shoes!"

I was like, "Heyyyy yeah, we do!!!" =) Hahha

Day 2 in Chiang Mai

My elephant ride was part of this 800Baht (RM 83 or AUD26) day tour package i took

Not in the exact order. More pictures of that day

Old camera new tricks. Playing with the macro function, pretty good for a 3 and a half year old piece of technology =)
Butterfly farm and orchid farm before the elephant ride and after the elephants, this

You cross the river using this cage thing!

Its fun! Lasts only 3seconds long? And then it was a hike to a waterfall

Nothing special, we had lunch there and because i was so slow eating, i didnt get to do more than take a couple of shots

I noticed that the forest in Chiang Mai had a lot of bamboo...

They provided a tongkat (walking stick for the hike) which i used a little when crossing little bamboo bridges. After that was a very mild white water rafting

Headed back to the city, where i moved into my new cheap-ass room

Backpackers rule no.1 NEVER ever ever pay for a room you have never inspected, even if it is 100bht a night. The bed is lumpy and there were a few black stuff on the bed near the wall. Floor was dirty so i had to wear slippers in the room.

The toilet was full of lizard shit everywhere!!! I spent a good hour or so spraying water everywhere to wash down the shit. I paid for a room and washed the toilet for them!

The guesthouse is run by the tour agent i bought some packages from, she sweet talked me into it. She and her sons live on the top floor and the four rooms on the ground floor with ensuite toilets are to be rented out

I decided to rough it out for one night, or maybe two, since i paid for 2 nights. Then i walked to get dinner, when i spotted this!

Jonadda Guesthouse! The place i was looking for on Day 1 in Chiang Mai! Recommended in the Lonely Planet book!

This is the street where i go for my internet, also has the 7Eleven i frequent. I called it my street =) A friend called it Sue Soi which means Sue Street, good times =)

Hungley curry, the waitress said its a Chiang Mai specialty, so i gave it a go. Lots of ginger in it. Not bad

After dinner, i decided to check out Jonadda. I saw an Asian guy at the front of the guesthouse alone, engrossed with his iPhone. Thinking he works there, i asked "Do u have any rooms available?"

He looked up and gave me the most confused, blank stare and eventually said "I don't work here", pointing a the other guy inside watching tv

"Oh my god, i'm so sorry!!!", embarassed i went to ask the correct person, who gave me the keys to room 301 for a look

When i came back downstairs, the two guys were chatting. To return the key i approached them and ended up joining their conversation! The guy is JK, a Korean American who's travelling for a year.

Prior to this trip, my mom n i watched Eat, Pray, Love where Julia Robert's character puts her stuff into storage and goes off travelling to Italy, India and Bali. Ironic actually meeting someone who did the storage thingie! Just like the movies!

We decided to see Doi Suthep together and exchanged Thai numbers. Chat for quite a long while before i had to call it a night

Returned to my crappy room and realized that the lights became blinking disco lights. With no one to complain to in Thailand, i smsed my new friend! =)

Appreciated =)

Thats about me!!!

My exact designation was not Senior, but he was new to the firm then, so i appeared senior. I remember my first Senior ever very well too =)

I told him, like i'd say to everyone: You can travel too =)

Certified Diver

One of the reasons i chose to do my Open Water Dive course in Thailand was because the whole course is done on the island. This is our 'classroom'

Outdoors, in the morning sun. British instructor on the left. Only two students per class =) Diving regulation says that an instructor can have up to 8 students but Scuba Junction is cool cuz they have small classes of up to four.

I was surprised we were allowed open book exams, discussion is okay too! So my dive buddy (you cannot dive alone, u must be assigned to a dive buddy if u go diving) and i had brunch while doing the exam

We had lunch at this place like... 3 days in a row, through the whole course. With views like this, not far away.

Good restaurant but i could never see its name, its the restaurant that plays movies at night on Sairee Beach

Some of the exam questions really made me laugh!
Check out the answers i marked with an X. Hahahha. Do u know the right answers? =) Loved the calculation part though i dont remember much now =P The next time i go diving i am sure they are going to make me take the refresher course.

Since it was the last day of the course, i took the risk and brought my camera on the boat!! Dont know what was i thinking, if i lose my camera i would go to Vietnam without a camera!!!

In my wetsuit =) Air tanks in the background... they have special names that i cant remember. And the blue blue sea =)

Post card picture perfect stretch of beach called Japanese Gardens. Would love to go there again. So pretty, we went there on the first dive day's 'confined dive' which is normally done in a swimming pool if u took the course in Malaysia.

Our instructor made us do the fitness test in paradise, it was hell swimming 3 rounds around the boat, especially when i had to swim against the waves! Haha, then we had to thread water for 10 minutes!

There was a bit more underwater tests after that, one of them was to remove your mask underwater and put it back on. The other is removing your air supply underwater and putting it back on. Won't lie to u, i was scared but needless to say i passed it all anyway =)

Like almost half the people on the boat are instructors or crew in Scuba Junction

They have to load and unload the equipment after each dive. While they were doing so, i took pictures!

Scuba cat, his name is Meow!

A photo with my instructor

Didnt realize he was wearing the Oceans Below t-shirt. He arranged for a videographer to film us diving on that day.

A photo with my videographer below, she's British. She's doing an underwater documentary course, filming underwater. She filmed us on the final day and made a video we could purchase. I didnt buy it cuz it was RM250. Awww, it was fun, i remember climbing to the roof of the boat and jumping in the water twice for her to record!!!
It was cool, the next night, her videography coursemate, my dive buddy and i went to Hippo Bar to watch the video on projector and chit chat! I loved the ambience and badly wanted to photos but i forgot my camera =(

Another instructor who briefed us on the first day.

Italian guy who can speak some Malay! You dont find many people interested in Malay!
L, another instructor who checked me in the first day, and M, a sweet friendly Thai girl who showed me to my bungalow

That night, my dive buddy n i went for BBQ dinner since we didnt have to study anymore! Yay!!!

Most restaurants in Koh Tao are this pretty =)

Irish, T and i, waiting for our food, watching fire dancers and enjoying the cool seabreeze. Sipping mango slushie for me and Chang beer for him while surfing the net, exchanging stories and looking at pictures of Ireland and Malaysia.

Chang Beer is one of Thailand's two local beers. The catch phrase for this one is, you'll get a 'Chang over' instead of a 'hang over'. The other Thai beer is Singha.

Monumental 2010

Plenty of changes, new things and new sights

and flights =)

Started the year weighing 59.7kg and ended the year weighing 56.5kg =) Sold my first car ever, the little white Kancil and bought my first car in Australia, a little purple Starlet

Obtained my Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (GradDipCA). It wasn’t fun but the success is one of the sweetest =)

I posted the following lyrics of a song on Facebook in July: “Certain things turn ugly when you think too hard And nagging little thoughts change into things you can't turn off”. Painful time with thousand “Why?”s. So glad I have finally moved on.

When one door closes, another opens. Some of them didn’t lead anywhere. Some of them gave me hope =)

What will 2011 bring???

Kisses 2010 goodbye!

Happy New Year!