The Will to Wander

First run back since my holiday - 25 days till my 42km run I don’t know why I did this to myself. I felt so tired running this. I’m gonna die! I’m gonna try consuming protein powder to see if it’ll help me with this. Will also cut my hair to get rid of the extra baggage (yes, I’m desperate). Yelp.

Hello!

It’s been awhileee. It’s been hard setting aside time to do this mainly because when I’m done with work I just want to vegetate. I’m such a lazy person really. I’d prolly kill myself if I knew how many hours I waste doing nothing lol.

Anyhoo enough about that. Here are a few pictures from my recent island trip in June which was about.. 3 months ago. Eep. Where does the time go?! I swear it’s flying by so quickly though I still feel like a constant which probably isn’t too good of a thing. 

Once again, I digress. So when Sarah was back there was talks of just going for an island getaway because it had been ages since we had both gone to an island in Malaysia. Because I was starting work soon I wasn’t actually sure if I should or could plus it just seemed like so much plannniinngg (told you I was lazy) since we didn’t even know which island to go to. 

So we literally booked our tickets one day before lol. It was just one moment of “JUST DO IT!” and we went ahead and just dove into it. Talk about spontaneous, how young of me!

We ended up choosing Lang Tengah which is an island off the coast of Terengganu. I remember there was this article floating around the web months ago that featured beautiful Malaysian beaches and by then, Lang Tengah made it into my books. As always, things happen as they’re meant to and I’m glad they did because it was a great beach. 

Getting there was a bit of a beach (heh) though. We ended up flying to Kuala Terengganu and staying a night there before spending 3 days and 2 nights at our ‘resort’. Kuala Terengganu really seems like a boring as town. All me and Sarah could do was to go around buying fruits, looking for supermarkets and eating their Terengganu pau which is basically a second grade Roti Bakar that substitutes the bread for buns. Nice try guys, but plz. They also have this Crystal mosque that looks like it’s about 200 metres from another mosque. 

Anyways, we had to take a 45 minute cab ride to the jetty and then a 1 hour boat ride to the island, but it was worth it of course. When we were nearing the islands shore we were just taken aback by how rich the blues of the water were. So gorgeous!

There really isn’t much to do on the island and the resorts are pretty average. If you’re looking for an island that’s gonna have loads of activities for people, this isn’t the island for you. There aren’t that many people compared to the other islands like Redang or Langkawi so the island actually feels a lot more personal? It was like it was ours! We’d just leave our belongings on the beach chairs while we waded in the water and we knew that it’d be fine and this is still Malaysia I’m talking about, so this is a pretty big deal.

The resort staff were so friendly (I think mostly because they were bored). Two of them were from India doing an internship there and they made us his own juice concoction and indian styled omelettes which are da bomb. Another one of the staff was from Philippines and he brought us one morning to watch the sunrise on the other side of the island. It felt so right just being there and hearing the waves crash into the rocks below. We also did snorkelling and that was pretty great cause the fishes were beautiful though it was sad seeing how much coral bleaching has been going on :( OH, and when we asked if they had coconut juice, they literally went up the tree to go chop some coconuts off the tree for us!! 

All in all, this was really the trip that me and Sarah asked for. We wanted to just ‘BE’ when we were there and believe me, there was a lot of lying down and pigging out. So happy that I got the chance to go there and to also have it coincide with when Sarah was back. 

Even though I got mauled by mosquitoes that left me with bite marks that made my legs look like I had some kind of skin disease, it was well worth it. Don’t you think beach holidays always kind of make your heart feel full at the end of it all?

In light of recent events, I’ve decided to share a few pictures from my home country, Malaysia. 

You know, all along growing up I always looked at ways to put down this country. Even after I graduated I was hoping desperately for the chance to stay in Melbourne. I couldn’t imagine a life or future in Malaysia. There was just so much to hate: the corruption, the heat, the lack of public transportation, etc and I was just so focused on finding things to pick at.

But as time passed on, I gradually started recognizing the beauty points of this country. I don’t know when it happened or why, maybe it came with age, or maybe as I spent more time in Malaysia, I had spent less time comparing it to other countries and focused more on what it provided than what it lacked. Either way, I’m glad it happened.

If you asked me if I’m happy with this country, it would be a definite no. The things that I hated about it before are still things that I hate about it now. But ask me if I could imagine being from any other country? I’d tell you that I couldn’t. 

Malaysia is real and Malaysia is raw. There’s something about this land that seems blessed. There’s beauty and grit all at once and let’s face it, we have pretty damn good food that people will notice is one of the few things that manages to bind every Malaysian (our bond with food is too damn strong). 

Even our language is so rich. Where else can you ask and answer a question using the same words?  “This one, got?” “This one, got.” 

Or where else can you combine words from three different languages and yet have it be so perfectly understood by everyone?

Malaysia truly is Asia. It deserves to be so much more as well and it’s just unfortunate that our country and its people are suffering so much now. So I’m glad I’ll get the chance to support my country and hopefully be the change that I want to see in it. 

Cheers to a better future, hopefully. 

Last weeks posting. Look at me, fourth post and I’m already behind! I just had chocolate and am feeling slightly guilty so I decided to make it up by writing up this post. Always trying to contra one guilt over another. So I went to New Zealand for the first time after my Uni grad in 2012. It was a family trip and we went to the South island and boy, I really didn’t prepare myself for the sights that New Zealand has to offer.  Lots of people think that New Zealand can be boring since most of the time you’re in the car driving off to places (definitely recommend doing this in New Zealand) or looking at clusters of sheep (I know that’s not the right word) but I LOVED IT. Seriously, just look at how blue this whole place is!  My dad kept on saying that it was like a rugged version of the Swiss Alps so since I have never been/seen the Swiss Alps, I’ll take his word for it.  Truly, truly amazing place it was. You know what I love about looking at mountains and these big ass lakes? I like that it makes you feel so tiny. I like that it shows you and puts things into perspective: that we’re all connected somehow and that we’re actually a lot smaller than we think. I think it’s great because seeing all this taught me how small our problems can seem when you think about the grand scale of things. 

Uugh. Desperately trying to make the once a week mark with these posts! And also, I can only upload 10 pictures per post, might be cause I’m uploading from my phone but either way, 10 pictures is not enough!!

I guess in a way it’ll help keep the posts to the point and still truncated.. still leaves me with a butt load of pictures though. =_= Maybe I need to create another blog to place the remaining pictures haha (nah, too lazy). 

Anyways, it’s already 12.01am on a Sunday night/Monday morning. Back to work tomorrow, so I might not be able to do such a lengthy post this time. This time, I’ll be showcasing some of the pictures I took during my time in Paris. I took the train from London which cost me £58, and it was super duper convenient. This was the first county that I visited in the Euro zone and boy, when I first arrived I was so.. lost. Not knowing the language really makes it all the more difficult, I mean even trying to pronounce the words is difficult enough. I definitely didn’t do as much lingo practicing as I should have! I didn’t know where to go, what to do or WHERE TO START. I was just one big ??? bouncing around the station for a bit. Finally got my bearings and bought a sim card (the one I bought was shit, go for Orange, they seem to have more shops around) and made my way to the AirBnb that I was gonna stay at which was located at Guy Moquet. I really liked the place I was staying at as it was a pretty close walk to Montmarte, which is known for all its artsy-fartsy stuff and you can get your portrait done there by one of the many aspiring artists there. Paris was a lot of walking. I think this goes for Europe but I just remember being so tired from all the walking! The Louvre itself is an enervating visit since it’s just inconceivably huge. Thank god I didn’t have to wait in line at all! (Hehe, got lucky with this one). And I also ended up doing a free walking tour one of the days and omg, my legs were gone.  But ahh, as usual it was worth the pain.  Before this, I’ve never quite gone with the hype people had with Paris. It wasn’t high on my list like how Italy was and I didn’t think the Eiffel tower was as breathtaking as people made it to be. But you know what? Paris really surprised me. Even though it drizzled 80% of the time I was there (surprised I didn’t bitch stare everyone down), I really enjoyed my time in Paris! Even though, a gypsy lady told me to Eff off since I told some tourists not to fall for her scam. And all I could do was just smile and slowly back away.. so good with confrontations I am.  Moving on!

The food was delish, the architecture was pretty amazing (can I get a what what for the Saint Chapelle?), and there was even a night where I went to this punk psychedelic gig! That was pretty fun mostly because I ended up talking to a few Parisians! There was one guy who told me that he travelled the world and did this by crowd-funding where he would take requests in exchange for money for his travels. So he ate Balud in the Philippines, tried dog meat in Vietnam and he even climbed Mt. Kinabalu and he drank Baijiu with a China man who ended up holding his hand by the end of the night (sounds like China alright). But the surprising thing was that after he told me all this, he said that he has questions if he should have done it at all. That definitely got me thinking. I guess it just isn’t something that is meant for everyone despite those many EliteDaily posts telling you the 20 things you should do before you’re 30, lol. 

Anyways, highlights! (Getting sleepy here):

Checking out Saint Oven market even though I legitly thought I was gonna die since it didn’t feel as safe and I was alone. Cool antique market tho, worth almost dying for. 

Using my horrible Mandarin skills to tell the bunch of China tourists to get behind the line. I told her to take her friend and go and they were just trying to play dumb by saying “What does it mean?”. Oh, China. 

Getting blown away by the architecture there. I’m so cultured, I know.

That crepe and learning the difference between a crepe and a galette. 

Coffee with croissants all day err day. 

The formage there.. Look at me and my knowledge of French!

4-7 Euro wines, I long for you each and every day. </3 

Sorry this post is a bit B(oring)-rated today. Monday blues already.

Second post woohoo! I’m usually the type who spams at the beginning and then loses interest instantly so I’m really hoping that I can keep this up because really, I need this blog. I have way too many pictures in my phone just laying idle and it’s just gotten to the point where it’s like “What’s the point then?”  Like, what’s the point of even taking these pictures if they’re not shared at least to some extent? I don’t believe in sharing every personal detail on social media but I think it’s good to have something to show, in case my phone gets stolen or something (which I would probably cry about).  Anyways, onwards to the posting! 

For those who don’t know, I spent the year in Beijing last year picking up Mandarin at BLCU because I’m a total fail asian. It’s hard to encapsulate my whole Beijing experience but if I had to I’d say it was unforgettably nuts. China is such a strange country. You can’t really pile it with the other Asian countries because they work on their own. You go there and realize that they’ve got such crazy extremes. They’re efficient yet slow, there’s so many people yet some places make you feel so alone, you witness their despicable dirtiness yet take in the untainted beauty of their naturescapes. What is this? Iz China dudez. Boom. 

I obviously can’t cover my whole China experience in this post so here’s one of the memorables. In Summer, we spent the night on the Great Wall of China. Yeap, we slept on the Great Wall. I don’t know how many people can actually say that but I can! And needless to say, it was amazing. If I’m not mistaken, this may have been at the 黄花城 (Huáng Huã Chéng) part which I’ve just checked directly translates to Virgin Wall. I guess you could call it that.  This was definitely the less touristy part of the wall as compared to Badaling and Mutianyu. We took a van there (I remember sweating since the air con wasn’t working well. Uuugh China) and then hiked up the hill which you can see in the first picture to only hike up the steep steps on the wall. We paid this old lady a toll fare for having to cross her garden to get to the wall, it was something ridiculously cheap like 15 kuai (less than 3 dollars) for like 9 of us.

So lately I’ve just been thinking about the amount of photo’s I have on my phone. If you guys follow me on Instagram you’ll probably (or not) realize that I don’t post a potato-truck ton of pictures in one go. Instead, I usually just post one or two daily which means that there’s just a whole lot of #throwbacks going on. But even then, I’ve got so many pictures that don’t get posted. Given that most of it is poo anyway but still! STILL! 

Anyways, it seemed fair to do my first post with pictures from Nepal. If people ask, this was definitely the most “Life-changing” trip for me. Not too sure why, but it just felt right. Anyone who’s been to Nepal can vouch and tell you how magical of a place this really is. The people are pretty darn awesome too, like seriously. I’ve yet to meet another country as a whole (okay, fine exaggerating a lil) who are as genuinely nice as the Nepalese. 

We cheated a lil and did the Annapurna Circuit in 12 days plus the side trek to Tilicho lake that burned my quads like never before and made my knees squeak and creak like really, really old wood. There was also snow there that people failed to mention and my Snickers bar that I brought to consume there was frozen. As if I deserved that at all. 

Which reminds me that I couldn’t consume the other Snickers bar I had because I planned to eat it on the plane ride from Jomsom to Pokhara. Turns out I couldn’t even bring myself to eat it because I was so terrified on the plane because it was SMALL, we were surrounded by mountains everywhere and you could feel the wind taking you for a JOY RIDE. I spent the whole plane ride clutching my opened Snickers bar.. :( 

Anyways! If any of you are ever thinking of doing the Annapurna Circuit. Do let me know so that I can send you some information on it. I know planning it can seem a little bit daunting at first especially when it’s so foreign but I can’t stress enough how all these things will be but secondary to the experiences gained.