Mindtrap

Mind clouded sense astray
What truth gets through your way?
Dialogue, cajoling, heckling, threats
Disperse like vapour in heat

Mind warped in steel
Sealed from inside's will
Only you can hear the truth
If you let the locks be moved

Mind afloat in fantasy
Reality keeps on living
Time still keeps passing
See how much you're losing
If you refuse to wake up.
Why not drop the sick desires
And greet reality

Counting the days

Have you felt work droning on an on, blending weekdays together in a mish mash? Sometimes, my Monday gets mixed with Tuesday, or was it Wednesday, no wait it's just Monday, I catch myself confused sometimes. And when I do reach the real Wednesday, it does feel like I've passed the half way mark of a marathon (not that I ever did one :P ). When Friday finally comes, I do sometimes feel like I just crawled out from a blender, covered in squishy slime that is pieces and bits of work, information, meetings, conversations, emails, calls, texts, more meetings and emails... and see the big blue sea called weekend stretched ahead of me :)

And in the space of the big blue sea my body is alive again and the mind is alert. Aware of every hour, every minute that passes, precious time slipping through the fingers like fine sand. Then my mind sets adrift thinking of all the stuff I want to catch up on, movies, that magazine lying somewhere, that dusty half-read book on the table, oh my dog needs a bath... a trip... oh yes... why not a trip? Weekend's a little too short, will have to save this plan for later then... Why does the juicy parts of life always gets put away. It seems like the moments I look forward to nowadays are far shorter than the horrid journeys taken to reach the moment. And all too soon the moment passes again.

Perhaps I need a paradigm shift. Perhaps my so called horrid days are not really horrid at all, I just can't see how exciting they are. As exciting as my next holiday ( already I can hear my mind sarcastically screaming yea right ). Or perhaps, just maybe, my days are really horrid. And it needs to be changed, pronto. Then I wouldn't have to end my lovely weekend on an abrupt full stop, it will continue throughout the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One endless seven coloured rainbow of days. Wishful thinking? I'm praying hard it's not, and I'll find the formula :)

The College Days..

I wanna be a college student again!!
Where I did assignments because I liked it
Nobody is my boss because if I fail I answer to myself
If I do well I praise myself
Where money was always short
but I wasn't afriad to find 101 odd jobs
Where life spread out like a big dream before it got tainted
Where all seemed hopeful, doubts were few....

Vietnam - An odd collection of pix

It's been quite some time since I headed down to Vietnam, I just couldn't find the time to write about it.

So I think I'll upload pix instead and let them do most of the talking. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words isn't it? But then again some say pictures are also very misleading so I will oblige with one or two comments for the pictures.

Vietnam, I'm not quite sure how to describe it in one word. I went to the south - Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding region of My Tho and Can Tho. It's not exactly a touristy place but if simply observing another way of life is your cup of tea, Vietnam is for you.

Somewhere in town, I chanced upon a road that sells just shoes, shoes, shoes.

I've had many bad dreams where I held a gun but it wouldn't fire at the most critical moment. Needless to say, the experience of being able to fire a real gun with live bullets has put a long haunting dream to rest.

She's a beauty. But she doesn't know her fate, being beautiful has a price to pay. Unfortunately, she will be skinned when the time is right.

First time on a bike with my friend. I signed up for a homestay. They separated us on two bikes. I wondered if I'd be kidnapped as we winded through village roads. It makes me wonder how I could be so trusting, but oh well thk God all was well.

My homestay room. This is actually not a true reflection of their life. The host actually stays in a brick home haha.

The people you might meet during a homnestay. So happened all of them are dutch. One of them has a pretty cool job as a private pilot. Guess which one?

I didn't plan on buying art-pieces but this one just hooked me. I fell hard for her mesmerizing gaze. If you're interested to purchase, drop me a comment.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Malaysia, hence my pre-holiday laziness to type. If you'd rather read a proper write-up click here :P

the longer writeup on Ho Chi Minh City

Broken Run

I count my lucky stars everyday

I take a ride with positivism

I run a steady run

Smiling ever ready

Sharp rocks seem like pebbles

White waters like streams

I count my lucky stars everyday

Because I can still see the silver lining

But I am tested oh so badly

When I see the closest to me

Who seemingly don’t deserve it

Has life handed on a golden platter

If it were a stranger

I’d shake my head and run on

Saying our lives are two worlds apart

Maybe they had it harsh, now God smiles on them

If it were a friend

I’d shake my head but wish him well

The wheel of fortune visits you

I hope it notices my sweat

And gives me a good turn of fortune soon

But if it were my kin of blood

The world now seems imbalance

I wish I could wish her well

But it stumps me to know

How dreams which you wish upon yourself

Dreams you work hard for

And never achieved

Can be granted unto another

Who has hardly broke a sweat

Yet been dealt a card of luck

By the very hand that feeds us both

How now do I run

How do I run

With a smile

As if the day has never changed

It seems as if all the principles I swear my life by

Now seem broken

Now seem to laugh back at me

Did life cheat me

Or did I cheat myself?

Did God blink for a moment

And in the short darkness

Life as I knew it came to a halt

Mighty friend, father, creator

You know the beginning and the end

You hold the secrets for every event

You know why you made things the way they are

Never do I want to doubt you

I always said I pledge my faith in you

But punish me not

For today I broke my steady run

My ride with positivism came to a halt

And ask you why

Is my turn ever going to come

Why was it in your story

The prodigal son had more

Than the one who stayed

Today I can’t remember the ending to that story

Kedondong Waterfalls - My second Waterfall Survivors Trip

From my last trip with Waterfall Survivors, I decided it's time to make another one. This time it was to Kedondong Waterfalls, somewhere between the Selangor and Pahang border.

It was an early which started out very wrong, but ended pretty well!
The wrong things:
#1 Opening the car door and stepping straight into a pothole filled with dirty water
#2 Being at the wrong meetup point
#3 Upon rushing to the right meetup point, got stuck in a standstill jam on MRR2 because of a horrific accident
#4 Since we were late, we took down the coordinates of the waterfall and drove ourselves there with the help of three trusty GPS enable Nokia phones
#5 Did I just say trusty? The signals for each phone went on and off. We are now left to manually navigate using the map. Good luck to us, there are not many landmarks in the map because we're driving through forested areas.
#6 We can't call for navigation help because we are using a different route from the group who drove earlier. Our GPS told us this is the better/shorter way.
#7 Oh, did I mention, my friend in the backseat blurted out that his friend who is not on the trip texted him to say that she dreamt something bad happened to him. Encouraging indeed!
#8 There is no #8 because after this it was fun all the way :D!!

Beautiful! The trek was actually pretty simple.

The water was icy chilly though since we're located pretty close to Genting Highlands

 The water continues its rush downwards...

Funnily enough this trek was simple but because there was a lot of broken bamboo along the way, this is the result... (Not meant to scare anyone, by all means go and have a safe fun trip! This did not happen to other people..)

Scratch #1 Along the knee

Scratch # 2. Along the calf. And a bruise too caused by a loose rock rolling down the slope and whacking my calf in the process

Scratch + Bruise #3. Probably the most painful of all. There was a hidden broken bamboo trunk facing upwards and reaching the height of my thigh. Thank god I didn't walk that fast.. or else.. impaled? :P

I would still go trekking and enjoy the outdoors anytime :D

On an Impromptu trip to Penang

Bored and looking for a quick trip, I jumped at the chance of going to Penang, Pearl Food Belly of the Orient.

Since I'm not going to be hanging in my room much accept to sleep and freshen up, I opted for a cheap but clean option - Tune Hotels, by the ever famous AirAsia which has constantly rained us with every possible as cheap and as practical as you can get  product.

I did not know what to expect but thought it should be akin to Fragrance Hotel in Singapore, a budget hotel which I previously stayed in.

This is pretty much the entire room. Just like taking an AirAsia flight, you pay for what you use. 

Need a towel? Pay.

Need hairdryer? Pay.

Need the Air-Cond? Pay. Oh I forgot, would it be for 12 hours or 24 hours?

Brought funky gadgets and you need wifi? Pay

Otherwise, you will have a nice clean room with comfy bed ready and a really good power shower head :) 

The bare necessities, done really well.

I wonder if they used recycled paper to print this?

Bathroom is pretty big for a budget hotel. It's half the size of your room and much bigger than the one I had in Fragrance Hotel Singapore. Won-dah-ful! I like a good shower without bumping into the walls.

But there's one thing which annoys me...

See that ad in the bathroom?

 And another ad here, just in case money matters makes you lose sleep

But maybe it's not $$ problems you're losing sleep over, you're just hungry, you poor baby...

And to remind you you're in the right hotel - Tune Hotels!!

Oh by the way, KDK fans keep you cool, so we needed to put their ad here too...

Garrrhhh,I thought I paid for a peaceful night's rest.. stop bombarding me with ADVERTISING!

******

While taking a walk on Gurney Road, I passed by this old mansion. So beautiful, reminiscence of the olden romantic colonial era. They should put up a board to explain its history. Or else I might have to give in to my curiosity, break in and wonder the grounds.. nyehehe

Pretty and mysterious...Wonderfully kept garden (which I just noticed while typing) so someone must still be looking out for this mansion

***

On the way to gobble Penang's delights, I chanced upon a petshop. And they had that garrafura (is that what it's called??) fish which supposedly eat dirt and dead skin. And it costs RM 25 per 40 mins (yeh, Penang is a heaven for everything cheap..) compared to KL which charge nothing less than RM 35

I hovered my fat legs above the pool first because I just realised, damn the fish were kinda BiG to be doing a small nibble job, ain't it?

My cousin shows me the way it's done.

Don't think too much, plonk your feet inside, banish thoughts of fish eating up flesh and bone, keep still, brace the tickles (or nibbles?) and your legs should be polished clean in no time.

After attempt no #101,100 and many squeals, I finally managed to totally immerse my feet in the water, for the fish to eat, chew, um nibble.

It was the Chap Goh Meh festival that night in Penang and the locals apparently celebrate it big here. After a round of shopping at Batu Feringghi, couz and I headed down to Esplanade to see what the fuss was about. 

Too bad, everyone was packing up their celebrations already. We had a little too much fun at Feringghi and couldn't keep up with time haha. So we decided to....

CAMWHORE!!! First with the brightly lit municipal council building

Next, with the birghtly litted trees along the road :D

***

You know they always say have char koay teow at Lorong Selamat?

I found the famous stall, they charge a hefty RM 6.50 for char koay teow compared to the usual 

RM 3.00-RM 3.50

First thing I noticed in the shop was the humongous exhaust fan. 

All the better to blow the smoke away, my dear!

And this was my char koay teow- soft pieces of noodle, egg, big prawns and lap cheong in full glory.

But.. was it worth paying double the price?

Nope, I'm sorry aunty char koay teow-whatever-your-name-is.