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Ah finally, been waiting for about a month since we planned this Perhentian trip with my boyfriend and friends from Bishan a.k.a Kenny Gan, Stanley and Pek Bee.

We were really lucky to still get accommodation during this long Wesak weekend, thanks to Mei’s recommendation of D’Lagoon Chalet. The other resorts at Perhentian were fully booked.

Our journey started with train ride for more than 12 hours, from Johor Bahru to Tanah Merah.

Through my experience with the long distance traveling, this time I smart a bit. I brought a book “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang (till now still haven’t finished reading), my greatest friend, Nintendo DS, and my recently uploaded 949 songs into my new 8GB Sony Ericsson w960i, on board to accompany me on our super long train ride. We even went to the canteen coach to have our best-mee-goreng-ever-tasted, however, this time, it wasn’t that great at all. Stan was so disappointed because he purposely joined this trip just to eat this mee goreng. Although the journey was long, I was really excited. I thought I won’t be able to sleep but I did. What a pig.

Need to mention one funny incident. Before we reached Tanah Merah train station, I managed to catch a train officer and asked if there were taxis available from the train station to the Kuala Besut jetty. He was very helpful, immediately took out his handphone, called his friend ‘Beri’ to arrange a taxi for us and that’s settled! I asked the officer his name, and he flashed open his jacket to reveal his name tag ‘ZAKARIA’. Hahahaha. A mini strip show. The action is still replaying in my head.

..click here to continue reading..

19 November 2007

(freaking overdue post… anyway)

Eh, see what I ate for breakfast, early early morning breakfast.

Rice y’all, rice!!! Didn’t look so appetizing ya?

Where we slept through the night like pigs cos super tired.

After the ’shocking’ breakfast and very unfulfilling one, we had to first go to those shops where tour guides get commissions. Weather was freeeeeezing.

Jade and Crystal shop!

Tower with miniature carved people. Very very exquisite.

I think I stared at the tower for almost half an hour. Carved from what, I dunno. Didn’t bother to find out either. I’m guessing it’s elephant tusks la, but you know, just guess lor.

I didn’t really wanted to buy jades but crystal I can think think. I’m so in love with crystals and the likes; translucent and transparent, eh, I’m a sucker for crystals.

Colourful globes made out of crystals.

I would buy one of those really colourful big globes if I could fit it in my suitcase. But my suitcase reserved for cheap handbags and shoes liao hehe. Maybe next time.

Nothing exciting happened here, I was quite bored.

Off to our next destination, the most looked forwarded one.

GREAT WALL OF CHINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Ai yam back from Stong! Conquered it again! Without much trouble this time

Last year was painful, this year was a breeeeeze. My almost $200 hiking bag was perfect. I love my bag. It is of Osprey brand for woman, 50 litre. Love it to death.

Last year was quiet and nice, this year was like fucking refugee camp. So many people. This was supposed to be a trip to ‘get away from it all’ but it felt like I haven’t left the city. Tiu. Now I’m back and I feel no difference.

Pictures not ready yet.

Only one, this time.

Injury aku.

Fell and slipped on slippery muddy earth cos it was drizzling when we hiked down from the mountain. And sprained my wrist too. Painful while I’m typing now. Tiu. Eh, now my hips also feeling pain man.

But best la, best feeling. I saw blood oozing out from the cuts. My blood is like bright red. So different from period blood.

17 - 18 November 2007

I’ve been looking forward to this trip so much because I know it is winter now in Beijing, and that I get to go SHOPPING!

That’s all I cared about really.

My boyfriend bought me a really really nice Wentworth Miller GAP winter coat for S$290. I already have a few sweaters and scarfs on my own so I didn’t get those. I shoulda bought those pink ear muffs though. Cos they really looked cute on me.

So off we go to the airport and disaster struck. I used my brother’s huge suitcase and I fiddled with the lock and then somehow, it got stuck. So I spent almost an hour trying to decipher the password and tried all combinations but to no avail. Fuck. My dad went to his car to get a screwdriver so when I reached Beijing I could pry it open by force. Which I did. Luckily, I packed some of my winter clothes in my bag pack and my GAP winter coat was in my boyfriend’s luggage, just in case something stupid like this happens. I’m glad it happened though otherwise all my planning and pre-packing would have been in vain. Smart I am.

We took Air China (not China Airlines, they are different) and I have to show you something funny on board:

No, it’s not for doctors, it’s a headphone! And that’s the pillow la underneath. The headphone is really cute hor? Hahahaha! But the one I had was spoilt, only can hear a lot of static. There was no personal TV, only a public TV on the ceiling which you have to strain your necks to watch and the TV’s like 10" lor I think. And they were showing an Andy Lau arty-farty kungfu movie which I have totally forgetten the title, in Mandarin. With NO subtitles. The other option would be to listen to Chinese Opera on the radio station. Bummer. No 50 cent ka?

The meals were delicious I tell ya. I think I had the best fried meehoon ever. But the seats were horrible and the space was so tiny. I felt quite oppressed throughout the entire journey because I couldn’t move my body freely and I couldn’t stretch my legs. And I tried to sleep but I couldn’t because I was too excited but I should because once we land, we are going to start the tour. No rest.

When was finally able to close my eyes to sleep, I saw outside that it was already daylight. Beijing here I come!!! Phewitt!!

27 October 2007

Had to wake up really really early to catch a train ride to Karnchanaburi. Took us about 6 hours. 6 hours of train ride on hard seats!!! My ass’ also flat liao. 

The train stopped at one of the station and we walked towards nearby stalls to have breakfast. But instead of half boil eggs or coffee, or the scrumptuos breakfast I like, like bacon and ham and hash browns, I had:

Looks yummy or not? OK lar, maybe like this:

That is pork with salted vegetables and rice. Delicious omg orgasm. It’s a little bit sourish. I think this is the first time I had rice for breakfast. The feeling’s…. weird. 

More train rides afterwards as we’re heading towards our chalet. But first. Stop at The Death Railway, over the River Kwai.

Some history lesson, excerpts from Wikipedia:

The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, is a 415km railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to support its forces in the Burma campaign.

Forced labour was used in its construction. About 200,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) worked on the railway. Of these, around 100,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. The living and working conditions on the railway were horrific. About 25% of the POW workers died because of overwork, malnutrition and diseases like chorela, malaria, and dysentery. The death rate of the Asian civilian workers was even higher; the number who died is unknown, as the Japanese did not count them.

The construction of the Burma Railway is only one of many major war crimes committed by Japan in Asia during the war. It is regarded as a major event in the "Asian Holocaust" during which millions of civilians and POWs were killed by Japanese personnel. 

The graves of the people who died a brutal death were transferred from camp burial grounds and solitary sites along the railway to three cemeteries after the war, except for Americans, who were repatriated. The main POW cemetery is in the city of Kanchanaburi, where 6,982 POWs are buried, mostly British, Australia, Dutch and Canadians. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to visit the cemetery, which was a total disappointment. I was really looking forward to it. 

The railway was very dangerous to walk on actually, as you can see from the picture above, there is no safety railings or nets whatsoever. You fall into the river, and that’s it. Extremely dangerous for adults, not to mention kids. And some of the planks and bolts and nuts were loose too. Can you imagine if you were one of the POWs who built this? Well I’d be scared shit. Yet it is still working, and we continued our train ride across the river on this very track.

After a couple of hours, we made a stop at a waterfall area for toilet break and lunch.

26 October 2007

This will be the 2nd time I’d be in Thailand. My company organized a trip to Karnchanaburi. I was partly excited because of the historical stuff, the Death Railway and all. I’ve heard about it but didn’t really care much about what really happened. All I knew was Japanese soldiers used British prisoners of war (POWs) to build the railway and link to India. Because I was ignorant about this, I went to buy a book to read on the 1st hand account of a British soldier who built the bridge but didn’t manage to finish reading before the trip because I was busy reading another book titled Fat by Robert Grant. Nevermind.

Well anyway, you can read all about it here. 

I was doomed to be an ignorant asswipe throughout the entire trip. To make matters worse, we didn’t have any tour guide. To make matters worse-terer, everyone spoke in Thai. To make matters worse-terest, NO HEATER! Machowhaiz. Details later.

Arrived at Bangkok first via Air Asia:

Check in to our apartment first:

Very nice and clean 5 star apartment with kitchen and bathtub! 

Then we went to the nearest bazaar for food and a little bit of shopping.

From bottom: Me, Mei and Fei. All 3 Malaysians. 

The night bazaar is kinda cool. Right in the centre is a huge ass foodcourt and the coolest thing is all the food stall sell the same bloody thing. How fascinating! At least they had beers too, so that was a consolation. There was a live band, a Thai live band singing Justin Timberlake’s songs!!!! Respect bro!

A really spicy tom yum, diarrhea in the morning afterwards. 

You wouldn’t believe whom I saw at this night bazaar that night.

CANDY LO HAU YAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very very low profile and she was with a bunch of friends and her boyfriend. Actually I didn’t spot her first, my colleague did. She was really really low profile. I wanted to ask for her autograph wan, but….. damn shy. Nanti, she reject me how? And what would I ask her to sign on? Maybe on a phad thai.

That’s all for the 1st night. Tomorrow morning need to wake up at 5 am to catch the train to Karnchanaburi. So stay tune.

Finallyyyyyyyyyyy.

The pictures are ready and I am fully motivated to blog about my Easter 2007 trip to Stong, Kelantan. Highest waterfall in Southeast Asia, mind you.

And I was there! Super proud of myself.

We started with 12 hours train ride from Singapore straight to Dabong, Kelantan. We had the sleeping coach of course and with limited space and resources, we played cards, told jokes and slept.

It’s just train ride, do you really want to see pictures?

Really really?

Ok lah to satisfy your curiosity. My sexy pose.

Hope your nose didn’t bleed. Muahahahaha.

6:30am. *cock-a-doodle-dooooooooooooooo* The train stopped us right in the middle of the track.

At first I thought, what the fuck? Dabong got no proper train station arh??

Actually got lar, but the train station was further up front, as we were in the first coach, we got down at the tracks. Weather was perfect.

After breakfast, we started the day with some caving first.

That is where we are going to explore. Looks scary huh?

First, we needed to hike on the ground to the entrance of the cave. The entrance is not straightforward la, you think what? Like got a big banner or a nice arch for you to just walk in? Fat chance! Have to climb, get your hands and legs and every part of your body dirty. My friends had leeches attack, I didn’t, damn lucky hehehe. And leeches aren’t that big wor, they’re really small and actually quite unnoticable. 

And inside:

Have to maneuver in and out of the cave, sometimes need to crawl. Lucky I got good body. Remember, when go caving, MUST bring torchlight unless you plan to die.

My favourite pic with natural lighting. Made me look so angelic. This photo was not photoshopped. Scouts honour.

My other favourite pic. Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.

Can’t imagine, God can have such a sense of humour sometimes. Just had to go up close and …

Sorry, just had to had to!

Some description about the cave, it’s nothing like you watch on TV. Experiencing the real deal and seeing it for yourself, is really different. The smell of the cave and the dead silence really haunt you for a moment. Not much creepy crawlies, I expected loads of them on the floor but there were still bats lor. Mini bats hehehe. You can spot a couple of spiders too.

After caving, comes the main attraction of the day. Hiking. Seriously. With a heavy heavy bag. Heavier than me I think.

Before that, most important thing to do is to put on as much as anti-mosquito lotion as possible. Johnson & Johnson sells this really nice green colour bottle, you can buy it at retail pharmacies for about $4 a bottle, I think.

That’s where we want to go. That waterfall. 

OK, the picture above showed myself hiking without my bag cos I tossed it to our guide (with the ski-cap) so he can hold it for a moment until I get myself up that rocky slope, easily. Fuck that bag was dragging me down but look at the guide! He’s carrying it like an empty plastic bag. Haih. I thought I had enough training before this trip. I thought I had prepared myself for the worst. But it was like 20 times worse than expected. We were practically hiking on a vertical slope most of the time.

Need to rest for a while and enjoy the scenery sometimes

Tips: MUST bring more water. More. If you think you are carrying too much water, you’re not. Halfway up the mountain, I already finished 3 quarters of my supply! 

Finally, after hiking for more than 4 hours, we arrived at the top of the waterfall. Yay!! Success!! We dumped our bags to our chalets first (ya man, got chalets with mattress!). There wasn’t anybody else around except for the other big group. So only 2 groups for the weekend. Both from Singapore man.

And guess what?? No mosquitoe bite man. 

Wonder if these waterfall activities are going to spoil my pedicure…hmmm…

Anyway, waterfall + me = what a beautiful sight.

The water was reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally cold, freezing cold type. Not those normal water temperature like Templer’s Park wan. Out of my expectation, when I dipped my toe in, I just shaked my head and sat one corner. No damnit, not going in, not going in. Even the hot burning sun had no effect whatsoever on the water. My shoulders were burnt though but NO effect on the water whatsoever.

Until my friend whom-I-know-now-that-I-cannot-count-on, pulled me into the freezing cold water.

  <– exactly my face that time

I didn’t feel anything because the freezing cold water numbed my body. Yes, it was that bad ok! But after a while I guess you’ll get used to it lor. We even went sliding on waterfalls, jumped into a really deep hole fit for one person only, screamed like mad fellows and had maggi mee picnic.

So happy!

Next morning, we watched the sun rise. I sat on the mountain top and thought to myself, how grateful and thankful I was to be there, to have made it. Who can do exactly what we did?

Can you Lee Hom? No, helicopters not allowed.

Of course, with such perfect scenery, a perfect picture has to be taken:

It’s nice to fart there also. 

But folks, please. Don’t ever shit or pee into the river. If you wanna do your business, do it in the forest or anywhere you like, except for the river la please. Please be considerate. As for me, I didn’t even do any business at all, except for a small one in the morning. Don’t expect good plumbing facilities lor. Just a hut, a hole in the middle, and the world is yours. Pungent smell and flies buzzing are expected.

The next evening, we started hiking down and my legs were already wobbly. 

I’ve got loads more pictures but too damn lazy to upload and explain here. Overall, I had a great experience and I fully recommend it to everyone, even if you’re not an outdoor person.

Now, since I’m the oh-experienced-hiking-one, I would be happy to answer all your questions. Go!

Update:

How could I forget? I would like to thank LF and Mei for being the best photographers in the world *muaks* 

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