Thursday, May 25, 2006

greetings from cambodia!

right now at an internet cafe in siam reap town. whoa it has been a good 5 days here and i've experienced much. not enough time to blog about everything..so i'm just gonna crap haha. internet access here is really cheap lar, it's like US$0.75 per hour. right now cos we only have limited time so we'll only be using for 30 mins. plus my dear dear is not online!!! so sad!! :(

the things i've done so far..grocery shopping at the wet market is almost an everyday affair because each group take turns to cook the meals everyday. i cooked my first batch of rice today!!! unfortunately it turned out quite disgusting..hahaha all clamped up together..but everyone still said it tasted good. *liar liar pants on fire* ok lar..it wasnt all that bad..porriagely..haha. anyway i've digressed. now i really know how to appreciate supermarkets back at home, like ntuc, shop and save, cold storage......it's such a hassle to shop in the wet market, and there are flies all over the place..ahh..
the best part of the expedition so far is angkor wat!! it's..majestic..haha..too bad i cant upload the zillions pics that we have taken so far.

staying at a host's place right now. decent place. there are water running from taps, that comes from the well. not allowed to stay on the site where we are building the sch because of security reasons. bugs everywhere. getting red dotted legs. eeek!

we are literally building the sch now. it's just a simple..hmm around 2 roomed structure. we've dug the foundation and are now laying rocks. tough work!! now i know how a blangadeshi feels like....but it rained today so haha...half day off.

anyway..to end off..cos i dont think i have much time left..gonna go shop around for backpacks and stuff..just wanna end off with some thoughts.

i guess when i return back home, i'll still be glad to have hot water running from my shower taps, clean tiled floor to walk on, not having to be afraid of creepy crawlies falling on me in my sleep!..electricity to light up my nights. hhaha one day i might even grumble about little i have back in singapore, but i supposed when that one day when i momentarily forget to appreciate these things i have, i'll always look back upon these days i have in cambodia, and realise how forunate i am..to believe in the simple pleasures in life.

seeing how the village people here live...you know..for some people, the trees, the sky and a few sticks are enough reason for happiness.

simplicity.

bahz.

but i'm a city girl anytime. hahahah..

okok no more time..i miss you dear dear..take care of urself ok? and enjoy urself..i'll be back in no time!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

the day is here!

after 3 months of hard work, finally the day has come for us to embark on our sacred trip to the land of angkor wat, scorching weather, famished and barrenness. thanks to all who have contributed to the fund raising in one way or another! to those who have bought nalgene bottles, t-shirts, or postcards from me, let me wash their cars, or made donations... :)

the past few days have flew by. been busy with preparation for project angel as well as meeting up with friends.

learning balloon sculpturing to teach the kids over there

my masterpieces






chilling out with the life science boy last night at iguana at clarke quay, thanks to..

cheekeong..who came down even though he was soo tired..


sean..who took half an hour to find a parking lot...


terence..who rushed down all the way from ucc after work...

i had a great time, talking abt everything and anything under the sun. :)

Friday, May 19, 2006

all my bags are packed i'm ready to go
i'm standing here outside your door
i hate to wake you up to say goodbye

but the dawn's breaking it's early morn
the taxi's waiting it's blowing its horn
already i am so lonesome i can die....


oh no but my bags are not packed yet..

Thursday, May 18, 2006

the underwater experience (part 2 finally!)

met up with josh and the rest of the crew yesterday for lunch and beer at brewerkz. greatly outnumbered by the guys, i had no choice but to drink beer as well! as much as i loathe the taste of beer...eeekk....ok lar i had some fruity beer, josh's recommendation, urps..which didnt really taste that great though haha..


all of us - spot me! i am the one with the white mask and neon yellow snorkel with orange tip.


all of us in a messy formation


me and dear dear


me in my classic hiao pose that everyone kept teasing me about


keat! my buddy~


the monsterrr! josh..grrrr


after a dive, on the boat

the fishes that we saw...

blotched puffer


6 banded angelfish


nudibranch


tomato clown


starfish


batfish


crab in hole


boxfish


keat and turtle

home sweet home

Monday, May 15, 2006

the underwater experience..(part 1!)

the world is rocking...

back from the underwater world, back to home and reality. head is spinning, and i feel kind of dizzy now, as if i am sitting on a boat, and it's rocking back and fro continously. haha. the aftermath of diving. it was a good experience. saw lots of fishes, especially many many little nemos! was lucky enough to see a turtle as well.. too tired to blog much right now.. more updates when i'm more awake..haha..



to the jetty..


the water is..CLEAR..crystal clear.. and the sea is BLUE..not murky green like singapore's.. you got to see it for urself to realise what a great difference there is between the waters!


our room..urps..i would say if you were ever to go to pulau aur, dont hold too much expectations for the facilities there. our toilet flush didnt work, and there were beetles on the upper bed of the bunks, spiders, lizards everywhere...


the beach and the jetty as night falls..


the dive centre and the place where we wash our diving equipment, behind is the dining area. ya as you can see, this place is definitely no shangri-la..


me and dearie after our 3rd and final dive for day 1.


me and keat! my diving buddy..


byebye..


me and dearie, photo-whoring on our way back.


more pics coming up..those taken underwater, but got to wait till my instructor sends them to me..lala..:)

Thursday, May 11, 2006

hey

i have a really enjoyable day. :) feeling really satisfied.

have been taking the pool classes for my diving the past 2 days. a whole new experience: the world beneath the water. to speak the truth, i really didnt enjoy myself that much, esp for the first day. i was struggling with my new environment. simply uncomfortable with the idea of submerging my head into the water and breathing through a tube! i dont know whether it's good or bad that i am taking classes with 3 other guys..good because in terms of fitness and strength wise, guys definitely have an advantage over girls, so in a way, i should feel safer, and they are definitely competent. however, maybe it's just me...i think i am suffering from some psychomotor problems. i was such a slow learner in comparison! or maybe i'm just lacking in common sense. the things that people find it obvious to do, i dont. it has to be spelled out step by step for me. sigh, what the hell is wrong with me.

things are further worsened by my extreme shortness of attention span. i cant seem to be able to concentrate, so poor josh usually have to repeat his instructions many times before i actually remember them. haha. i am a terrible student.

but all in all, things did get better. spoke to josh, he said all i have to do is to focus and be confident, and i'll do just fine. think i am just suffering from xin bing..a disease of the mind. need to conquer my fears first...

ok next. enough abt diving. been talking to too many people abt it haha.

met up with engtaty, jas and cedric for kbox today, together with my dearie. it was fun! jas and i were acting like some siao za bor at times..haha..sang till 2pm and then met up with andre. we watched poisedon, a pretty good show about how a group of people escaped from a sinking ship. a lot of people drowned in the show..what a movie to watch the day just before i go diving. sigh. oh n then we went shopping, or rather i did, andre just followed. haha. bought a pair of denim shorts from far east. by 6pm andre was dying of exhaustion so i decided to spare him the ordeal of accompanying me for more window shopping.

went off to a21 to get waterproof pouches for soh ai. had a good chat with gordon, the boss. he is a wise old man..and he gave me a pair of 3/4 working pants which costs $149!!! to reward me for all the hard work i've put into the consignment..soo nice of him!! he wants me to work for him after i come back from cambodia..hmm..since i had time to spare after that, i stayed on with alex and qiming while they had their late dinner. had a good chat too..

ok sounds pretty much like an ordinary and very boring day right? but i am just feeling very satisfied..haha. :)

setting off to pulua aur tmr~

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

wheee~

we just got a 3k sponsorship!

at least it solves the money woes for the time being...

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

the mosquitoes infested land

i am back from ubin, with mosquito bite ridden legs, aching calves and stinky clothes. just wanna laze around at home the rest of the day, but no, i still got pool class later. hope i have enough energy for later on.

i wouldnt say the ubin trip was fun, fun, afterall it was a preparation camp to give us a preview of what we'll be experiencing in cambodia. i got to know my fellow team members better. realised it takes certain events to bring out a person's character, they further highlight each person's strengths and weakness. different situations call for different forms of leadership and hence different individuals. some people function well in air conditioned rooms, organisation of events, when it really puts us to a test when you're out in the wild, drenched with sweat, stuck in the middle of god-knows-where, suffering with lack of sleep...

night started at 8pm on sunday, and ended around 5pm the next day. i only had 30 mins' sleep the whole time. strangely at the end of it all, i wasnt sleepy. i was tired definitely, but so long as there are activities to keep me going, i'm fine.

the first challenge
12 of us, excluding 3 of the leaders, split into groups of 4, given 7 challenges to complete. 7 because we are project angel 7, haha. first challenge: each group was given 7 dollars to buy food for the next day's breakfast and lunch. we bought:

1. bread - $1
2. kaya - $1.30
3. 1.5 litres of water - $1.10
4. beehoon - $1. 10
5. 10 eggs - $1.30 (so cheap??)
6. 4 onions - $0.20 (so cheap again..??)
7. 4 apples - $1 (bargined with the uncle, initially it was 3 for $1, hahhaa..)
8. small packets of salt and oil - foc, got it from a nice hawker auntie

cool eh?? i never knew you could buy so many things with just $7!

second challenge
10.30pm
to find our way to a place in ubin, without using our torches, except when we want to read the map. it was kind of eerie to walk in the dark in the middle of the night, wondering what would jump out from the trees. ubin has no lampposts, but surprisingly the moon was enough source of light for us to see. was black, but not pitch darkness. it's not that scary when you walk in groups of 4. we almost went the wrong way though. apparently there are some roads not indicated on the maps. dont think navigating around a small island like ubin is as easy as u think, things are never what you think it seems, esp at night.

reaching the house, we were given a crash course on how to pitch tents. not that most of us never dont it before, but we kind of needed a revision. like for me..i've certainly had experience.. obs, obs sabah, berkelah just last dec..but eh..my memory fails me.. and more often than not, i always have people to rely on to do the dirty work for me.. *ashamed* =X.. time to be self sufficient and independent and stop relying on other people..

third and fourth challenge
12.30am
find our way to chek jawa, which is on the other side of the island, approximately 5km away from where we were. burden was on our team leader, keng moh to lead the way, while the rest of us followed. took us a couple of hours to get there. lost our way in the forested area once, but managed to get back on track soon. along the way, it was the chattering, singing, crapping that kept us going.

just one word - exhausted.


alex, tired out.

back at camp. 6.40am. chatted a while, ate a little. all of us were stony faced now. some marched straight to the tents, zombie-style, to sleep. a few of us didnt even catch a wink cos the next challenge was to clear out of the camp site at 8am. haha. at first i thought perhaps it was better to stay awake, than to sleep for a while then wake up again. but after a while i thought, some sleep is bound to do some good, even if it's just for 30 mins right? so i took a power nap from 7am to 7.30am, then got up to unpitch the tents, pack my stuff, wash up a little, and had hard boiled egg for breakfast!


me dismantling a tent, oh no, caught in specs!


yay..me and xj playing with the hard boiled eggs..


waiting to set off


off we go..

fifth challenge
11am
to make our to noordin beach, which was on the extreme north of the island, and to obtain some stories from the native villagers. we heard some pretty interesting stories about ubin. did you know that a wild elephant actually swam to ubin from malaysia a while ago? the experts were informed on the mainland singapore and they brought 2 other elephants from the zoo to pin the wild elephant down. sounded a little odd to me. wondered how that could be done.

a tiger was cited a while ago too, by some tourists, but it was never found. an uncle from a provison also told us that there used to be wild chickens on the island. they flew from malaysia. yes i know, chickens dont fly do they? apparently some do, the wild ones. there used to be more than 500 people living on ubin. immigrants workers, until they were relocated to the mainland by the gov. there are only 50 native villagers on ubin now. most of them stayed because they have no choice...where else could they go..what could they do? on ubin, they have businesses, shops..how can they afford the same thing on mainland singapore? this very old lady told us she likes staying on the island..peace, quiet..and occasional visitors like us.


noordin beach

that's for old people i guess..i wouldnt survive a day on ubin. haha. tranquility, peace, quiet....not that i dont treasure these..but i much prefer noise, bustling activities...give me the city anytime.


our lunch: ham + onion + omelette, was quite tasty, though i dont think you can tell from this pic haha..


catching up on our major sleep debt, everyone nodding off to sleep except for the few of us, trying to clean up the mess tins.

sixth challenge
1pm

a tennis ball is placed on top of a doughnut thingy in the middle, string tied around it. each of us hold on to a string of different lengths and bring it up a flight of stairs. pretty fun!


more and more people are blindfolded as time passes, up to the rest of us who still have our vision to guide them along, making it all more challenging.

seventh challenge
ranking a list of items in order of importance when you land in a desert with 13 other people.


discussion in groups


fake faint: joe wanted to test us on how we will react to the situation when someone has fainted. poor yongyao was made to lie on the dirty grass with mosquitoes flying around him for a while. pretty convincing at first, gave me a shock initially but he gave the game away after a while when he giggled!!! hahahaa..still it did make me realised the importance of first aid training. what if it was real?? i'll totally be at a loss of what to do. in the pic: hazel and soh ai carrying him.

the end
5pm

all smiles at the end of it all...

Sunday, May 07, 2006

may
7 - 8th: ubin
9th: repacking of old clothes and collecting old sch unis, pre departure briefing, pool class for diving
10th: pool class again
12th: khmer class (sigh probably cant make it..)
12 - 14th: diving trip at pulua aurs! ..mothers' day!
15th: meeting at IMM
16th: close consignment account
21st: fly fly flying to cambodia

june
10th: fly fly flying back from cambodia
17 - 18th: training for ntt docomo (tentative)
19th: on site training
20 - 23rd: exhibition

Saturday, May 06, 2006

angel activity

whoa what a workout today! was out at bishan early in the morning, distributing pamphlets to the individual units in bishan, informing them that we will be collecting old clothes, electrical appliances, newspaper etc next sat, for local beneficiaries.


all of us at bishan j8 having lunch after a tiring morning. first time i set foot in j8 for ages!

some snapshots of me taken by the great photographer, qiming!



some pics from the car wash we did a while ago.



me and xj washing cars dilligently!


yongyao and gavin - the water boys


using the lorry to deliver water..behind is eusoff hall, my block!


liangguo: slacking away!!?? haha romantic eh the pic..xiaojun: hail to the world!

all of us..during our very very first meeting..