Andrea posted this on YA blog. I thought I'd share it here too. It's a reminder of God; of me in Him.

Phuket Day 3, 4 & 5

It's been 3 weeks since the trip and I haven't been blogging about any other things that has been going on because I figured if I do, I would eventually refuse to finish my posts on Phuket.

As I've told many already, the bungee jump crane had no electricity so my attempt was not successful. It was relieving actually after the days of thinking about it but it would have been one of those thing that I would say "Boy, I'm so glad I did it" after doing it. Another time perhaps.

The pictures are not in chronological order.

Lunch slightly below Big Buddha hilltop.

View from the Big Buddha hill.

This place was called Wat something.

Taking pictures from the backseat.

The bungee jump. All 50 meters of it.

When we got lost in Phuket town and waiting for the navigator to consult his map.

They needed to pose with their ahem...'Harleys'

Riding without license.

It rained at the serene Karon Beach once we reached. It was my best day in Phuket.

Japanese at Fuji restaurant in Jungceylon Mall. That was our last afternoon and according to the clan they had too much Baht left so they needed a splurge.

And we went shooting pistols nearby after lunch. My first time!

A man I love, sometimes hate and occasionally a stranger who lives under the same roof.

A fruit I've never seen. Forgot the name. Tasted sour with a bite
to the fruit and it has a big seed in the middle.

Wee! The bugs. These were larvaes I guess. Or what were they?

My bag of fried insects served with a squirt of sweet soy sauce.

Grasshoppers actually tasted quite ok. But I couldn't bring myself to eat the cockroach.

The street right outside our hostel. Great pasar malam with stalls of awesomeness.

A type of meatball tied in a long string-like manner. Looks quite gross.

Tada! The grand cinema with all the popcorns. I like Bob the Jello!

And I'm back in the city eating maggie goreng.

The weather is HOT

Today is another one of those days where I don't have a plan. I have a lot to do but none is done. Sitting here in college, waiting for time to pass while I occupy my head with my grandiose plans. Ahh, the beauty of day dreaming in an air conditioned room.

I have quite a few more pictures from Phuket I've yet to upload. I'll do so when the lazy phase passes.

Finally, I'm told to start work on the guidebook compilation job. I was given Phuket as the destination. What a coincedence. I hope I can finish up the guidebook on time.

.....

There have been small things going on this week that makes my life more interesting. I'm feeling the flatness of the world like what Thomas L. Friedman wrote about in his book. The power of the internet of bridging gaps - physical distance, cultural gaps/differences etc...

I should do more mini random things like going to MPO again, doing the 1 day PD trip, oh and the sleepover in KLIA (the one thing I've been wanting to do since The Terminal)

Oh well...

Happy Bumming Day, Day 2

Many small things that made my day an adventure on day 2 in Phuket. The starts with me sleeping too much the day before, remember? Right after I finished writing the previous post, I headed out alone, not knowing exactly where to go. Plus, I left my camera in my travel mate's room, I was without a camera or a pen. Just my G705 and me.

So I journaled my whole day on the 'Notes' function. And I'm lazy to put together a story with my notes. So here goes...

Tour guide/lover/listener to grandfather stories, I wonder how much they charge
*upon seeing the common sight in Phuket - a white man holding hands with a Thai women.

And then I saw the first person with naked top at beach
*It was an old white lady with her partner strolling along the beach

Nice heavy white women picked up a piece of floating wood in the sea water and threw it onto the sand

White uncle with t-back trunks
*My first encounter. Forgive my jakun-ness

When I got up from suntanning, a few others were sunbathing naked

Superman women scolded crazy
*I asked the price for a Superman shirt (for Elroy) and I didn't buy because it was too big but the aggressive lady insisted that loose t-shirts are fine.

Stranded in front of hostel
*That was the result of going out alone without the clan, and I didn't have the key. Almost an hour gone waiting for the clan to finish their Pizza Hut lunch.

Popcorn frenzy-cheese,salted,bbq,caramel
*The clan got excited over the 4 popcorn flavors in the cinema. We payed 120 Baht for Monsters vs. Aliens. Funny one. I like Bob the jello. And we got the sofa seats worth 400 Baht aside from being the only 6 people in the hall. We even took pictures.

Heineken shirt, left camera
*I was over the top when I finally bought the Heineken shirt. But I left my camera at the shop. Fortunately the lady was really nice and she waved my 400D at me when she saw me running back.

Toe ring
*The usual harassment at the beach by souvenir,sarong,food and whatever you can name sellers. I bought a toe ring somewhat gladly for 100 Baht. And I forgot to bargain. Sigh. But I made the man's day (I hope).

Carefour good variety of bread, cheese, ham
*I took a stroll at Carefour and found many ingredients we don't see in Malaysia. I felt a lot like Cold Storage. I love the bakery there, they have good baguettes and other type of bread. Good ham but oops I can't eat any. Did I tell anyone that I started a pescatarian diet? No meat except fish. I haven't been following strictly, especially with noodle soup. I know that it must be a meat stock.

Stationary collection
*I started this thing where I'll get a pen and notebook from every place I visit. Something I could write my journal and it works as a souvenir too. So I got my Thai notebook and pen.

Armpits not tanned
*Result of not stretching my arms wide open when I was sunbathing - what an embarrassing journal entry.

Gay escort also available - Phuket Gay Festival
*I saw a gay escort in the beach. Then I remembered that Phuket is quite a town for gays. I read it off some brochure about gays in Phuket are proud of what they are, hence the festival.

Oyster man scolded
*There was an oyster stall at the hawker food street. When I was ready to snap a picture the seller scolded me. My bro said the oysters must be from somewhere illegal. I wonder if that's true. After I changed my mind of buying his oysters.

Phad thai finally - very good.
*I had it with seafood. Awesome street food. Flavor was good.

Insects - can't be coward.
*And I found insects. I wasn't looking for them but they appeared to me. So I had to try them although I seriously wasn't in the condition to eat them. My soul wasn't ready. There were 5 types, deep fried with soy sauce and served with more soy sauce (maybe fish sauce) and pepper. I tried grasshopper, larvae and worm. I couldn't bring myself to try the cockroach and an Unidentified Fried Object.

Reaching the Island, Day 1

Miss

After the missed flight, when the time came for our second flight at 12pm, I can’t help but rush and quicken my steps although we were 20 minutes before boarding time. And there was a surreal feeling when we were actually in the air craft, that we were on board. I finally realized that one can actually miss a plane.

We can't help feeling relieved when were finally reached Phuket. Bro standing far right.

And there was really a medical screening. But we didn't need to.

Upon reaching Phuket International Airport, we were swarmed by taxi drivers and van drivers. We already knew the normal price for a lift to our hostel, so we got into the minivan for 150 baht per head. The downfall of this is that they’ll ‘conveniently’ stop by at a tour agency and force their way through selling us tour packages to James Bond Island, Phi Phi Island, Elephant Trekking, etc. We found out later for the sea canoeing trip to James Bond Island costed only 1200 Baht instead of the ‘final price’ the agency offered at 1800 Baht.

Good thing the minivan driver didn’t do anything funny. He stopped us right in front of Dive Den, our home for the next 5 days. I was surprised by the vicinity of everything else, Jungceylon Mall and awesome street food. Because what I read on the reviews were that Dive Den is considerably further than other hostels to the beach. So I thought since the beach is the happening place, Dive Den should be quite remote. But I was wrong.

We settled ourselves into the rooms and chatted with the receptionist for more details on tours and what-to-dos around. I really want to learn the open water course here and experience diving in one of the top 10 diving spots in the world. I didn’t have the money though, unless I get bro to swipe his card haha. Plus the extra we spent on the airplane ticket which I will have to pay too. Sigh.

After the gastronomical street food affair down our street, bro and I retired to our hard beds. And twice Ming Yew and clan came knocking on our door to ask if we want to go to the beach. I should have! But I succumbed to my sleepiness and there goes my day. It was at most 8pm local time (Phuket is 1 hour behind Msia), and I woke up only 30 minutes ago, at 6.45am. Wow that’s a lot of sleeping, that’s why I felt some body aches when waking up.

I promise the next 4 days won’t be the same. No more slumbering off, I must enjoy the sun and the night life and the bungy. Sigh bungy. Yes, no?
No pictures yet of the stuff we did cos I think I left my camera in one of the boys’ room. I will do something later. Suntan, sip some beer and sign up for diving course and maybe reconsider bungy jump again.

My First...

I laughed and laughed. But around me, my travel mates are all looking either tired or disappointed.

We just missed our flight. By 4 minutes… 4 MINUTES!

On top of that we decided to buy the next soonest ticket to Phuket. All 1500 bucks paid for a lesson really well learnt.

We have 4 hours and 30 minutes till the next flight (hopefully we won’t miss this again) so we’re bumming in the crappy Coffee Bean in LCCT which doesn’t have WiFi. And so I’ll be copying and pasting this blog post. Psst, my mom doesn’t we missed the flights btws and we decided it’ll be something between the few of us.
With the unexpected leak in my pocket, I will give a pass on my plan to bungy jump. Mom was terrified when she heard about it anyways. Maybe I’ll do it in US few months from now. What she doesn’t know wouldn’t worry her eh?

The oldies they play here are reminding me of my younger days. Paint My Love by Michael Learns to Rock, Colors of the Wind by Vanessa Williams, As Long As You Love Me by Backstreet Boys etc.

Oh, 4 hours and 22 minutes left. Oh another oldie, Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. This is the beauty of traveling I guess; the missing flight, the disappointments. Perhaps we’re supposed to be stuck with each other and spend time together talking, or more like sleeping together. After all, I don’t know them well; I don’t even know the names of my travel mates other than Ming Yew (is that how it’s spelled?)

I brought Jane Eyre to read by the beach instead of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road this time. (Oh it’s Everything I do, I do it for you by erm…Bryan something). My head weighs a ton now but I can’t be sleeping in a café, it’s not comfortable. I spotted 3 backpackers sleeping in their sleeping bags by the departure hall earlier and noted to Ming Yew that it’s cool (oh, it’s Bryan Adams, is it?) and that we should do that. Well my wish came true, just short of a sleeping bag.
Oh it’s MLTR again, That’s Why You Go Away. The songs here are so solemn. Why can’t they play a bit of Bob Marley or Jazz?

Ughh, sleeeeep.


*Woken up by My Heart Will Go On. Of all songs to play very early in the morning!!*

Another ordinary day

My skin started peeling off today. And I happily helped in the process of skin shedding. This reminded me of that time in Gold Coast where the skin off my whole body was peeling - I felt very much like a snake, naked and ugly.

I'll be heading to Phuket tomorrow, after all the turbulences: mom, and brother's friends. There were disagreements between us fellow travel mates on petty things, like hiring the guys from the hostel to pick us up at the airport or getting a minivan there. And in the end I lost my case 4 - 1, my brother not included cos he's the one sitting on the fence.

I had my first class for my new semester today. Macroeconomics. I've always thought economics to be interesting but today's class didn't feel like it. I like it when the lecturer touched on current issues though. I was telling Lydia that the back-to-school-zing was not felt when I was back today. I've had that zing the past 4 semesters. You know, that glorious aura that we feel thinking about seeing our dear friends again, sitting in a classroom doing stupid things again.

I will definitely take pictures of how I will be inspected at the airport by nurses to check for swine flu indications, if permitted.

I was supposed to visit Seem today, with Mabel, without Seem herself knowing. But I have yet to buy the Buzz Lightyear soft toy I've been wanting to get for her. And now that I'll be leaving tomorrow, the visit will unfortunately have to be postponed till next week.

Oh did I mention the cockroach I found in my nasi goreng kampung? Oh and that I managed to escape another speeding ticket? I owe it to the drivers on the opposite side of the highway for flashing their bright lights at me. It's so awesome to get insider news haha. Yeah I know, I ran out of ordinary stories to tell.

The flight will be very early in the morning thanks to my bro. Going to bed soon. After I pack my bags lah, haha.

Our short life

I was once again reminded of the short life we have on planet Earth. Someone passed away last week. Well, thousands pass away, or maybe more, everyday. But that someone was someone within my circle of friends and no one can understand the feeling, especially that of my dear friend who's going through the grief.

Instinctively, I immediately called those whom I've been contemplating to call. You know, the friends or family members you keep reminding yourself to call but somehow never managed to call. I called to say hi, to ask "how are you" and say "we should keep in touch".

It's reminders like these that rings that alarm within us; that we can't idle and care less about people we know because they're still alive and kicking. Will we care more if they're sick or dying? We do always almost show love and care when it's too late. I know I do.

This reminds me of www.37days.typepad.com. Patti Digh's talks about living significantly in her posts, a result of facing the 37days that led to the death of her stepdad. And also the book Tuesdays with Morrie. The death of Morrie was beautifully, though sometimes confusing for my young mind, portrayed in Mitch Albom's writing.

And it's death that makes me think twice on applying that job to get extra money so I could spend my time caring more for my dying grandmother, blessing people with the little I have, and pursuing more significant goals. As cliched as this sounds, it's about purpose driven life. Over the years, I've lost touch with my purposes. My purposes in God, the Creator and the Lover of my soul.

I like asking people "How's your day?"(we all do, don't we?), perhaps I should start asking myself a question too, like " What have I done for others today?"

Back from Tioman

I'm finally done suntanning at the beach and back in the city; with red instead of tanned skin. Ok lah, it's sunburnt skin. The initial Singapore visit for Vertical Horizon's gig in Beerfest Asia 2009 was canceled because Bryan wanted to come home to get his things done before the semester starts. The cancellation was a wise move I guess since the Singaporean government started 2 days ago, to quarantine foreigners going into the country for medical screening to prevent the outbreak of swine flu.

I was college today and I saw swine flu awareness posters pasted on almost every paste-able notice board. That reminded me of the Phuket trip. My brother planned a trip to Phuket with his friends before the outbreak of the almost pandemic disease and when I came home on Thursday from Tioman, I decided I needed more of the vast blue sea and white sand. So I'm on for Phuket as well. The trouble now comes to the swine flu. Mom had been asking, 2 or 3 times if we really want to continue with the trip. She said better safe than sorry, the few hundred bucks on the airplane tickets can be forfeited; she's fine with that. Bro's friends wanted to go on with the trip of course, and although I did reconsider, I guess the personal fable part of me says, "It's ok, come on, how many out of the thousands of Phuket visitors will be infected? You'll come home safe".

So instead of continuing in the state of dilemma, I decided to get masks tomorrow from the pharmacy.