Phuket sketch

Sketched this using ArtRage iPad app. ArtRage, I must say, is a complete tool to create your own masterpiece using pencil, ink, pastel, oil paint, and many more. And you can choose from the wide range of brushes as well! This ArtRage app even comes with setting that allow you to determine the pressure to be applied when using pencil, the type of blending for oil paint whether you'd like it thin or thick with not much oil. Bottom line, this app rocks if you have no instant access to canvas, brushes, etc while you're hit by instant inspiration. But, for using it to replace the real thing? Nah! For me, I guess even the most sophisticated apps can't beat the real joy of holding a pencil/brush.

This Present Darkness

So lately I've been reading Frank E. Peretti's masterpieces, This Present Darkness (book 1) and Piercing the Darkness (book 2). These two series are basically Christian fiction stories that center on spiritual warfare against New Age movement such as meditation, yoga, and a universal thinking. I can say I enjoyed reading them coz somehow I was reminded that even a simple problem is best put before Him through a prayer, like seriously, prayer is our main weapon.

But what about yoga? I remember my pastor once said in his sermon a few years back, that actually each yoga position is a form of prayer for certain gods. I don't know about you guys, but I used to think that if I do yoga for a healthy purpose, like, not take it seriously as a prayer to whatever gods, it should be fine. I did actually try yoga for a month, back when I was in japan, but I guess It just didn't feel right coz I knew what was behind it, so I quit. The same also goes with a Universal Understanding movement that its purpose is to unite the nations into only one nation. Take John Lennon's song "Imagine". The same pastor also said about the lyrics of this song that has double meaning. Must be familiar with the song right? Then there is this line saying about how wonderful world would be if there's no religion. That's the universal thing there. Okay now I know I sound like a preacher, but these things creep me out. I just can't help thinking maybe we are really that close to the second coming. Who knows.

Phuket: Phi Phi Island

October 08, 2010

Now, it was the time for the real experience in Phuket. A tour to nearby islands. The city offers several options when it comes to the island tours. We chose Phi-Phi island tour because of several reasons. Bf went to Phuket once before and he picked the “James Bond” island tour. All he got to see was a cave with bats dangling from the ceilings. Hell no I’m going to let myself IN that cave. So… we got ourselves the most attractive package of all; A one day trip to Phi Phi island. That covered other small islands as well, including Maya bay where The Beach movie was filmed.

The minivan picked us up at the hotel at 7:30 AM. We spent an hour journey from Patong to the pier. There, we hopped on a speed boat after a guy from the tour agency took our photo one by one at the port. On the boat, we were briefed once again on our tour itinerary. The journey to the first island took about an hour. A good, bumpy one hour journey. I was almost convinced that the boat driver intentionally made it a rough ride just to wake us up :p

 

We stopped at the first island, Phi Phi Lei, for about 30 minutes before heading on to the next island. Here we jumped from the boat to the water below, as the boat didn’t stop at the beach but between cliffs. O.M.G. Never before in my life I jumped from a boat, let alone swimming in between cliffs. Not to mention a picturesque scenery of blue sky, cliffs vertically rose from the water, an emerald green, crystal clear water!! And I got to swim with so many fish also swimming alongside me. It was downright the best, THE BEST experience I had in my more-than-20 years living. It was almost felt like heaven on earth. Oohhh the weather was also superb. Not too much sun, otherwise I would have thought twice before exposing myself under the bright shining sun. ha ha. Too much UV is not good for skin ya’ know.

Our 30 mins of pure joy was up. Next stop would be Maya Bay. To venture the island, we were given 1 hour time slot. Not much we could do here, as the beach was jam packed with tourists. After that, leaped back to our boat and off we went to Phi Phi Don to have lunch. Yes, we were starving! But there was one more stop before lunch. I forgot the name of the island. I threw myself into the water again there and enjoyed being floated back and fro by the waves.

Welcome to the Maya bay.

Eva was here

Ahh… the lunch. It was an international buffet with a mix of spaghetti and local dish. Not too bad *or I can say: we were too hungry to bother much*. In this island, there are local shops selling souvenirs just beside the dining hall. Sun dresses, hats, shell crafts, and clays. I got my hat here :) We spent an hour to have lunch and already we were rushed back to the boat. We were going to the most crowded beach, Khai island. But, along the way there, the boat stopped at Monkey island. Off the boat everyone, we were going to feed monkeys, yiihaa!

Warning: Monkey bites

That monkey ignored me!! He *or she* didn’t seem interested at all, while the rest…mind you I tell the truth, fighting each other just to grab whatever thing the tourists offered them. ckck.

 

We had a chance to see Viking Cave (a name of the famous cliff) and Bird Nest.

Arrived at Khai island, we helped ourselves with pineapples and watermelon. Refreshingly sweet.

Never liked pineapples before, but that pineapple was GOOD

Hmm nice beach, nice weather… a good time to doze off

  

Ah, the day trip was over. We headed back to the marina and claimed our previously taken picture. It was 5 PM and we needed to go back to hotel as fast as we could, coz we had to be there when the shuttle bus came to pick us up to the Fantasia Show. Well, a long but needless to say, an awesome day we had. The highlight of my Puket trip.

Phuket: Simon Cabaret Show

7 October 2010

Oh Never before I thought this time would come, when I sincerely say: “I L.O.V.E Phuket”. For me, Phi Phi is the most beautiful island I’ve ever seen so far. Yes, even more beautiful than Bali/Lombok. I lived in Lombok for 9 years. As far as I remember, my family spent our free time playing, swimming at the beach. I thought there wasn’t any beach that could match the one in Lombok. How wrong I was. You need to go and visit Phi Phi and I let you decide :p

Well, how it all began? I took 2 days off work on 7 and 8 October and jumping on a plane to the next getaway, Phuket. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this holiday, coz me never been a great fan of Thailand, despite never being there, really. What I could think of was anywhere other than Singapore would be just perfect. I didn’t really care where I was going. A sign of overstressed, perhaps?

Anywho… we did buy a packet of free and easy travel to Phuket. And I tell you this: I’m glad we chose Phuket. We were flying with Silkair at 9 AM. The flight took more than an hour and we arrived around 10 AM local time. A minivan from the travel company were there to pick us up along with the other 8 Singaporeans. Since our check in time was at noon, the travel company gave us a half day city tour to visit some tourist spots, or I’d rather say, stores, along the way from the airport to Patong beach area where our hotel located. First stop was a local shop selling T-shirts and claiming to be the only one offering the best deal any tourists can get on good quality T-shirts. Bought 3 shirts for Pa.

After that, off we went to the gem store. It’s – based on the marketing video they made us watch – one of the biggest in the world. The building, is indeed big. Sadly couldn’t buy one, so damn expensive.

 

Next destination, Pornthip Phuket. it was time to taste local delicacies. For all of you who like durian, this is the place. They sell durian chips, dried durian, and durian paste. Also a various type of Thai sauces. Yummy.

Next: Honey store. Not much I can tell about this one, since they explained all there is to know about honey in… CHINESE!! The old man kept on mumbling about, despite the complete bored looks on our faces.

Final destination for the half day city tour: Kinnaree activity center. Here we can ride an elephant (elephant trekking), go-kart, shooting. We hang out with the tour guide and ended up buying tickets for the Simon Cabaret show later that night. Got to feed the elephant and posed with it. Gosh, elephant trunk freaked me out.

 

 

Then finally it was time to go to Patong (kind of like Kuta area). We checked in, ordered room service for lunch as the hotel is located at the hill (10 mins ride by car from Patong) and there’s no way you can walk to the centre of Patong unless you’re willing to walk for hours. Ahh… had an authentic phad thai noodle *sluuurrpp*

Felt beat up, I slept until 6 PM and quickly got ready for the night: Simon Cabaret. The minivan picked us up at 8 PM. Simon Cabaret show is basically a musical show performed by local ladyboys (transvestite). Hmm… it was like watching a concert. They all lipsync tho, singing popular songs from all over the world like Lady Gaga, Korean Wonder Girls, Beyonce. Geez, I saw one ladyboy, played a role of Beyonce, who look a bit like Beyonce. Trust me. Maybe it was the makeup. The props… wow!!! you should see all the props and costumes they’re wearing. They really go all out on it, very glam. I wonder what they’ll do with the costumes once they’re not using them anymore, coz I’m quite sure they keep changing costumes according to the artists they mimic.

Took some shots with the ladyboys. You’ve got to give them money if you wanna take pictures with them.

That was a wrap for today.

PS: You might want to keep an eye on ur bf, ha ha, coz gee, they look like the real deal, well, at least a number of them.

 

Stupid GPS and a Sneak Peek at Next Getaway

October 3, 2010, Sunday

Oh my, I don’t know if I ever again will truly rely on GPS!! So here’s the story. Mum and dad had reserved a resort at Kintamani for the next holiday. Since I’m pretty much a curious person, I asked mum a lot about this place until she couldn’t take it anymore and suggested why didn’t I checked the place out myself. And me being me, I said why not? That day was Sunday, so our plan *initial plan* was to go to church at 7 am, go to Kintamani, have lunch at Warung Bu Oka, Ubud, and finally pick up mum at the airport. But as usual, a plan is a plan. What is a plan without someone *unintentionally* trying to mess it up? (In this case that person was me). Yes, I wake up at 7, the service begin at 7 while it took us approximately 45 minutes to drive to church from the hotel. So, we decided to skip the morning service but we would still go to church… why? Because I really wanted to eat lumpia (spring roll) sold at church food court.

After we grabbed those yummy lumpia, Kintamani was our next destination. Now, this is the turning point. Dad was going with us, so he could show us directions, but… BUT… because of this new GPS device installed in our car, we would like to try it. This way dad wouldn’t need to pay that close attention on the road. So we followed the GPS directions.

It was okay for I think the first 20 minutes before bf missed the turn. Sure enough, the GPS showed us the alternate route. Then, us being innocent, without suspicion followed the directions. The roads pointed by the freakin’ GPS were all small roads, we even made a joke that time: “Even the GPS knows the side road”. After a while, things got worse, the road became even narrower, windier, going up and down in a dangerous steep, not suitable for car. But we kept on driving. Not long, we heard a loud scratching sound from under the car. Yes, the road condition was that bad it scratched the car body. The joke was on us then :( We decided to turn back, and what a nightmare. The road was narrow, with a dried small river on either side. And when the car passed the same road, we heard the same heart-ripping sound (oh, I felt sorry for the car).

Well, we were a bit down at the time. But felt a bit relax after we reached the resort. It’s a lake-front resort, very quiet and isolated.

A long journey caused us hungry and as planned, we headed to Warung Bu Oka. Now, there was a Balinese wedding ceremony held at the temple next to Warung Bu Oka. It turned out to be Happy Salma’s wedding. Well, because of it, they closed down the place for the day, so we decided to go to Bu Oka’s other restaurant :p Oh yes, we all  couldn’t take anything other than Bu Oka’s famous “Babi Guling” for our lunch. Bon Appétit.

Home Sweet Home

October 01, 2010, Friday

Me and bf went to Bali for the weekend. It was a short trip but enough to lift up my spirit. Boy, heaven knows how much I needed holiday. Anyway, our flight was at 9 PM, so we had to rush after work to catch the flight.

October 02, 2010, Saturday

Early in the morning, we packed our bag again coz mum had booked us a hotel room at Nusa Dua. But sadly, mum couldn’t join us, she went to Semarang later that day. We had our breakfast at Sanur beach; a local fave, Nasi Bali. The place run by three Balinese women and not that commercialize that it’s known only to local. Afterward, we sent off mum at the airport and straight away went to have… a SPA!!! Oh gosh, my shoulder and back were killing me for the past few months, so having a spa was just a must ha ha. The last time I had spa was.. I think December 2007… Kinda like déjàvu to me. Only this time, I was with the person who, despite knowing the ugliest side of me still wants to be with me. Hmm.. enough about that, overall it was a nice, relaxing time.

After being pampered, me, bf, pa, phopho and her two sisters went to Sanur to have lunch at Mak Beng warong before headed to Novotel Hotel. Mak Beng warong only has one single menu, i.e. fish head soup and fried fish. The fish head soup? Super delish.

At the hotel, I couldn’t wait another minute to throw myself into the swimming pool. Hungry after rounds of swimming, there’s no better place for dining out than Jimbaran! Pa managed to get the big family gathered in. What a nice way to end the day with the lovely crowd.

 

The three sisters