I still Love to Blog

Really I do. But I love my nieces better. They are cuter than my blog.

Also, I'm spending wayyy to much time at work. If not at work, then thinking about work. If not thinking about work, then dreaming about it. This is very unplanned for.. I just fell into it, really.

I still love you, dear friends and reader. I just have less of a life. and time. and energy. To update, or get involved. But that doesn't meant I don't think about it all the time, which I do, by the way.

I keep meaning to load up a collage of my twin nieces. But I spend too much time playing with them and taking pictures of them... and then conveniently feel lazy to make the pictures into a collage and load it up onto the web. :P Take my word for it, they are the cutest things ever. So chubby, and cute, and cuddly, and ohymgod it just melts my heart when they smile. I don't want to grow up too fast. Because once they'll do, they'll start talking, answering back, being rude, saying no, refusing to listen, slamming doors at your face... argh. Surly teenagers. I don't remember being like that... (though I'm sure my mum would beg to differ)

This is becoming a bad habit, me updating my blog only when I'm feeling high. It's like I'm only inspired when I'm high. Does that make me an alcoholic? No lah, I'm inspired by everything. The first rays of the morning sun. The chirping of birds. The smell of coffee. The taste of food. The smell of babies. Everything. I'm not an alcoholic. I'm a lifeaholic! :P

Now that I'm on a random blogging spree, better puke out everything I can think of:

Let's see, what are the last few movies I've watched.....
Avatar: Oooh, very pretty. The animals and plants, so pretty. But too freaking long. And one too many reminders of LOTR. But soooo pretty!
Alice in Wonderland: Weird. Alice in Wonderland to begin with, was already a weird story to begin with. Tim Burton took it to a whole new level. Disappointed with the Mad Hatter though. Expected him to be more, outrageous. He seemed too, controlled.
Sherlock Holmes: Rocked my fucking socks. Robert Downey Jr + Jude Law = fanfuckingtastic. I mean, apart from the actor, the storyline and the script was entertaining enough for me to love the movie!

Tv shows I'm currently trying to follow:
Glee: It's a guilty pleasure! Really! I really hate the very shallow storyline and always can't wait to get it over with until they perform.... but the lines they come up with sometimes, can be pretty darn funny and clever! I'm really liking r. schuester a LOT... though the sad thing is that I highly suspect that he is gay in real life. :(
AI: Not quite fantastic group this year. Not one person really stood out for me. It was just, meh. Is it just me or are the judges just really sound like they don't know what the fuck they are talking about anymore? My money's on Crystal or Siobhan. Crystal is actually original enough and Siobhan, like Simon says, it's a funny little thing. But if she keeps insisting on screaming at every single song ending, I'm going to strike her off faster than you can say "adam lambert"
So you think you can dance: love it love it love it love it...... until a couple screws up a performance, or when that annoying screeching thing who's a judge screeches like a dying hyena. The host, Cat Deeley, is really someone I can keep looking at without feeling bored. Ryan Seacrest could pick up a few pointers from her.

Clubbing:
G6: Hate the place, most probably due to the fact that I hated the crowd. All these kids looked like they haven't even sat for their SPMs, what gives? Hate the DJ that was spinning on that night we were there. Some guys from Hitz. DJ Skeletor? Ohmygod. Unless G6 is meant to be a club for kids with a 5 second attention span, DJ skeletor should've been sacked yesterday! Thank god there was good company to save the night.
Zeta Bar: Very age-appropriate place. Nice life band, but after 2 nights, realised that their sets are pretty much the same. I had great company, so both times I was there, it was awesome.
Marketplace: For a foam party. Helluva fun! Mostly because of the good company, and excellent DJ. Except 2 days after, my skin started to peel like a freaking snake shedding it's skin. A little embarrassing when it's on your face. At work. But FUN fun FUN!

Etc...:
- I want to whiten my teeth. I've been thinking about it for too long already. Time to actually DO something about it.
- I'm feeling relieved and excited about something I did this evening. I haven't felt like this in a while with regards to "this". Fingers crossing, I hope it works out. I know I'm being annoying cryptic. So sue me.
- I'm actually a little jelak of Hoegaarden. Going to try my best to stay away from it for the next couple of months. Keep the killkennys coming though.

..........................................................

damnit. I ran out of juice.

till the next random update.

muah to the 2 of you for still sticking around.

Internal Thoughts.

Oh my god.

I am so totally aware that I should be sleeping right now because I actually do care about being able to function at work tomorrow. But the urge to blog is just too much to ignore. So here I am blogging at 2.15am on a Thursday night. shhhh. don't tell my boss okay. :PPPPPPP

why am i fucking blogging whenever i'm feeling extremely high ar. this is fast becoming a habit. am i turning alcoholic? do i actually creatively function better when I'm high? Wait. Don't tell me. I don't think I want to know. Let me enjoy this a bit longer.

I have to reiterate that the urge to blog in me is very high. Is just that I don't have my own pc, so.... it's inconvenient lah, which is why i dont bother.

Anyway. first thing first. clubbing in bamboo is fucking fun because the DJ plays MOSTLY danceable music. i say mostly because the fella likes to do the following which annoys the hell out of me:
1) plays a couple of songs more than once... not really complaining when he plays my favourite songs, but i don't feel the same about other songs which I don't quite enjoy.
2) plays karaoke-ish songs in the middle of the night. Karaoke-ish songs are only meant to be played at the END of the night lah idiot.
... other than night, fucker plays very very danceable music ...... thus far.

....and a 700ml black label for 300 bucks is still fucking overpriced for something i can get for 100++ bucks got 1 litre duty free at airport but what can i do about it, eh?

anyway, random shit time, because i'm high and can say almost whatever i feel like saying:

i'm 30. time is running out, but i'm still kinda young.

i wish i picked things up faster, but i know everything takes time.

i wish i had the natural talent to speak/sell/convince because it's so fucking relevant in life, but perhaps i will learn those eventually.... but why not NOW.

it's true what they say about "it's not what u know, it's who u know". unfortunately, my no bullshit assessment of myself is that i have neither, which means i have to work from ground zero, which sucks for me.

i know hard work counts for something but i wished i didnt have to work so hard.

i would probably go somewhere later in life, but i'm a impatient motherfucker who thinks too much so why not the hell now.

i know the fact that the only thing that is really stopping me from being truly great is myself - this might take forever to fix.

i really love to have a somebody, but right now when I'm high, i must say that it's better being alone than settling. in general lah.

i probably want too much too soon and have too high expectations which might mean that i'll never be happy - it's a good and bad thing ... right?

i don't care what u think, but i do truly love to dance, but the lack of basics, and with my fucked up knees means that there's a high possibility that i can never do it for a living. :)

my nieces are so cute. until they are naughty, which is when they are not cute and i'd feel like throwing them away, but the moment they are NOT naught i truly love them to bits.... until i remember what my brother told me " they are mine yeah, not yours. get your own ". sad. u think so easy ar? tiu.

lady gaga still rocks my socks.

i can't think of anymore.

till the next drunken post, goodnight.

Of Clubbing and Dancing.

Fuck I really want to blog more but I'm spending too much time at work and with life. Sorry. I feel really bad because I have so much to type about, but just can't be arsed to. Anyway......

Am a little high now so may be incoherent. you've been warned.

I'm sure i've mentioned this before, but I really do enjoy clubbing.

the music. the atmosphere. the drinks. the company.

Ppl say I think too much. that I'm too uptight. that I'm emo. I care too much.

Perhaps they are right. BUT.

When the music is good, the company is right, the drinks are plenty - I am none of that.

I prance around with my hands flaying about like a monkey on heat. I say whatever without giving a shit. I wear whatever I want - cargo pants, sneakers, tshirt - as long as I'm comfortable.

So if you're judging me on that night by how I act, look or dance - why should I care? I don't know you. You don't even KNOW me.

Someone once shared with me that his "me" time was when he was making his own coffee from scratch. The moment people see him making coffee, they know to leave him alone. It made me wondered what MY alone time was.

I finally figured out tonight that my "me" time was with some booze, some decent music and a dance space.

That's when I don't really give a shit about anything else but my own enjoyment. That's when I can lose myself. That's when I don't give a flying fuck what you think. That's when I forget about everything. That's when I feel fucking great.

Which is why I don't quite enjoy lengthy, philosophical conversations at clubs. Or any conversation for that matter. Don't enjoy random guys trying to chat me up. Hate the lack of a dance floor or shitty music.

Which is also why I prefer dancing with women because THEY DON'T EXPECT TO GO HOME WITH ME.

Not saying I'm hot. Or a great dancer. But you know how it is at clubs, right?

I would dance with a guy, if he knew that he's not getting anything from me. I would dance with a guy if he can kind of dance. Of course, bonus points if he is semi-cute when in the dark and when I'm high. But it's all very subjective because I don't really care about anyone else but ME during my "me" time. I'll just do whaever makes me happy.

I sure the rest of the world thinks different but I want to go to a club because I just want to enjoy myself. I want to get lost in the moment. I don't want to give you my number. I don't want your name. I don't want no goddamn conversation. I don't want to go home with you. I just want to dance. Unless you feel the same way, just leave me the fuck alone please. Please. please. Stop wasting my time and yours.

Hello, nobody decent really wants to get laid at a Club by a random stranger okay.

At leasts not me anyway. So just leave me alone, and just dance! Gonna be okay! just dance! spin that record babe! just dance! dance! dance! dance! dance!

A One Third Life Crisis In a Pear Tree.

Blooooody hell. Last night I had the biggest urge to blog and rant while I was high but NO! Cannot! Blog had to be down. Must be a sign from Allah. Oops. I mean. God.

Happy new year all! :D

It feels weird being able to BE at home for such a long period of time. These past 3 week marks the longest stay I've had in Malaysia over the past year. When I was away for work it was mostly me, the four walls, cable tv, booze and the laptop. It was fun at first since it has been quite awhile since I have lived "alone". Not having to layan anyone but myself. Do whatever I want, whenever I want to. But the novelty and the sense of adventure wore off after 6 months and routine kicked in. Most of the time, there was so much work to do that I end up leaving the office late, only to continue with work at home with beer in hand - because there was just nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, without having to go through the trouble of wrestling my way out of a sea of people who have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. The only things that kept my sanity in check were my friends, and well, would you like the guess the other thing? No prizes.

Last year will also be remembered as the year I drank the most beer in my entire life. *looks at belly*

Getting flabby now. Should start hitting the gym already. Not to lose weight, but just to get back that sense of fitness. Not getting younger. Even my mum's muscles are more toned than mine and she can carry more weights than me. A bit shameful lah, that's all I'm saying.

Okay. So now I'm back for good, I'm like a lost puppy.

WHAT THE HELL DO I DO?

I am so out of touch with everything it's not funny. Apperantly too many things have happened over the year. I'm out of touch with this community, my local friends, technology, hell I'm even out of touch with myself.

One really weird thing now is that I find it out that all my friends from this community are SO hooked up that every time they say/do/go/taste/smell/laugh/touch/see they update it on twitter first before anything else. -_- This phenomenon is really going to take a lot of getting used to.

So, I guess this year will the year where I jump start my own life. Get ME sorted out. Get up to speed with everything and as fast as possible.

Which brings me to something very dear to my heart.

One Third Life Crisis.

Look, it's not fair that 20 year olds and 40/50 year olds with a life/identity crisis get to have an official name for what they are going through. Sure, One Third is not as catchy as Quarter or Half, and will probably never catch on, but hey, 30 year olds with a life/identity crisis have rights just like any 20/40/50 with a life/identity crisis do and it therefore deserves a real name damnit.

I'm turning 30 this year. Oh my god (which just in case you didnt know when translated to BM means: Ya allah tuhanku).

The big Three! Oh!

The funny thing is that whenever someone I know frets about the number I'm always telling them that it's ONLY a number. But now when it has infected me I'm all - It's NOT JUST A FUCKING NUMBER. I'm sweating now Not because I have the urgency to get married tmrw and operate a baby making factory immediately.

I'm sweating now because I still have naught a major achievement to be proud of in the past decade of my life. Or perhaps my memory is so damn short now that I probably had quite a few but forgotten them all because too many brain cells drowned in booze. But I digress. The point is, if I don't remember, it didn't fucking happen. Haha.

Someone I look up to once asked me "you don't have really high ambitions do you?"

I'm not sure if I was supposed to feel insulted, but I wasn't. Because this person is right. By high ambitions, he probably meant that I didn't have that desire to climb the corporate ladder like an aggressive fire breathing dragon lady on crystal meth and having the desire to eventually take over the company and destroy a small country.. or something along those lines. Anyway, he was right. I don't. But that does not mean that I didn't have ambitions. It's just that my priorities in life were different.

Then he asked - what do I want?

I want to be happy.

Then he asked again - Yeah but what will make you happy?

I couldn't answer. Which then got me thinking - WHAT makes me happy? What were my priorities?

After nearly a year, I think I now have a vague idea. In no particular order:

1. My family. I want to spend more time with my nieces. My oh so damn cute can die got com nieces I can't get enough of. I want to be there with them every second they grow up. Make them laugh. Scold them when they are naughty. Buy them nice, pretty things. Watch them beat me at computer games. Take them out for their first beer when they are 18. Dispense auntie-ly advise to them whenever they seek it.

I want to be able take my family out for a holiday. Buy my parents a car. My little sister a car. Dispense big sisterly advise to my sis and brother whenever they seek it. Help out with brother's twins. Hang out with the sis-in-law. Treat the family to makans or a movie sometimes. Buy my sister nice things when I feel that she deserves it.

2. My friends. I want to have hang out with my friends more and get into all sorts of fun, stupid shit with them. Have tonnes more warm and fuzzy memories with them. Have stories about them to tell my grandchildren or at least, my nieces when they grow up. And even when we are all old and grey, still be able to have a beer at the pub, exchanging pictures stories of our grandchildren. When on my deathbed, I want to be able to reflect upon my life and say that I had been a good friend (even though forgetful and scatter brained), and was constantly surrounded with good friends and good times.

3. Myself. Start exercising again. Organise my bloody mess around the house. Start a working filing/action/scheduling system. Own a landed property with MY name on it. Get a bigger car. Go on that crazy backpack round the world trip. Start another blog which focuses on that one hobby and actually commit time and effort to come up with proper content. Update THIS blog a little more regularly because I still do ENJOY IT. Pick up a new hobby. Go for hip hop, belly dancing and pole dancing. GO dancing. Get married one day with someone who's better than me at life and madly in love with me. Have a couple of kids. Adopt a beagle. And if I don't get married, fine. I'll still have my nieces. And TWO dogs. And my own place.

Funny thing about my list is that work was nowhere in it. Yet somehow I'm spending MORE time on it then I pursue the things on my list. Plus I KNOW I don't want to eventually take over the company or anything like that. I just want to do something I enjoy doing, contribute my fair share, and work well with like-minded and awesome colleagues/employers who I actually like enough to want to have a drink with. Only a naive idiot don't know that work IS important. Because without work = no money = no means to hang out with friends or family or do things that make me happy. Also, because of my stupid sense of responsibility I would feel nothing short of guilty if I didn't make it a point to do a good job at my job. Besides, I enjoy it most times. It's not perfect, but I think I can safely say that I liked it much more than my previous jobs who close friends are aware how.... strongly I feel about those.

I want to do too many things, with too little time, and with not enough moolah to go around. That whole work hard play hard saying is easier said than put to practice.

I need to find a balance that works for me. But How. How? HOW? HOW???!?!?!?!

I haven't found the answer to that yet. Which is why I don't feel like I've achieved anything, I suppose. Hence, my one third life crisis.

Perhaps time will tell. I hope it doesn't take too long though. Because for some reason, I keep thinking that time's running out too quickly... and the answers are still nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, I'll continue bumbling around, trying my best to make things work.

Well, it IS the new year. New decade. New ambition, perhaps. And hopefully new motivation.

So friends & family, please be patient.
This life is still under construction to serve you better.

Home.

The light at the end of the tunnel is just a reach away, I can almost feel it at the tip of my fingertips.

I've been so out of touch with what's going on at home. With friends, family and everything in between. Like an invisible stranger peeping into a house. Only able to see, and hear what was going on inside - but not being able to be part of it. I can't believe how many freaking awesome parties I missed out this year! Bloody hell!

There were so many exciting/new/interesting things I could blog about this year, and I was really tempted to, but I never had the urge to type it down. By the time I got home I rather pop open a can of beer and stone in front of the telly. Exhausted from spending way too much time at work. I suppose taking pictures in my mind was good enough. At least you and I know for sure that I'm not that much a hitwhore or a slave to hitmoney. ;) And there goes all my future freebies! But that's okay though, I still have "fehmes" friends to parasite on. :)

There will be parts of this place I shall always miss and wished that I never had to leave it. I'd miss the independence. A place I call my "own". The accessibility. The not being in a jam. The safe feeling - knowing that I won't be cheated by a taxi, knowing that there's not a very high chance that my bag would get snatched. The bars being just 5 minutes away. The MRT just 5 mins away and taking me to places I actually WANT to go. The crazy variety of booze in the supermarket. The pretty colours of Xmas along Orchard. The no smoking anywhere accept in yellow boxes. The RM2.80 SGD2.80 chicken rice. The ramen shops. The sake. Ice Cold Beer. The absolute happiness of finding really cheap groceries in Chinatown. Wala wala. Clarke Quay. Clean, working public toilets. Morton's free steak sandwiches.

I could go on and on. But like Dorothy said, there's just no place like home.

I'd like to believe that over the past year that I've grown as a person. That I've learnt more about life, about work, about myself.

The hardest part about leaving are my friends. The old ones, the new ones, the ones I haven't had the chance to make. I was saying goodbye to a couple of them already, saying how much I would miss them... as if they were lovers I was saying goodbye to. I wish there was more time. Suddenly there's so much I still want to do. See. Taste. Hear. But there's no more time left.

Oh well. It was a great run.

It was great fun.

But it's time to go home.

away. indefinitely.

figuratively speaking, there's a dementor sucking away every bit of happiness from my body and my will to live.

so no more energy to blog for the moment. at least not until i've finally figured a way to patronus charm the fucker to oblivion.

p/s: what the hell?!?!? i'm referring to harry potter?!?!?! i must be in worst shape than i thought.

Update (14/7/09): In case you don't already know, I'm still twittering, at least. Check out my side bar ---->

not an update

Sorry, very busy. Bali updates tergendala untuk sementara waktu.

Meanwhile, check out the trailers of the movies I really want to watch.

Coco Avant Chanel - A french film about the genius behind the label. Audrey Tautou stars in it and she hasn't been in any movie which sucked so my money is on this movie not sucking.


Transformers - Childhood superhero robots, can't miss it even if it might suck (because Michael Gay has that gift to fuck things up for all of us).


Up - Another Pixar film which will be great because Pixar cartoons have been consistently great so it shouldn't start sucking now.


Fame- Might be fun, like how Mama Mia was fun. I'm a HUGE sucker for synchronised group dancing and harmonised singing. In case you were wondering - No, I never watched High School Musical and never will. I do have some standards, you know.


Dance, Subaru! - Based on the Japanese manga with the same name. It's about a girl who aspires to be a dancer and could be goosebumps inducing. I'm a sucker for goosebumps. Don't diss this movie because it stars several hot Japanese chicks often wearing tight tight clothes and frequently being in compromising positions.


What are your must watch's of the year?

The Great Bali Trip 2009 - Saturday (I)

We hadto wake up before 2am for the trek up the Mt. Batur volcano. Crazy right? Crazy. So both Suanie and I tried to get some shut eye at about 8 something, 9pm the night before. Actually unknown to Suanie who I found out the next morning could not sleep a wink, I woke up almost every hour because the walls were too damn thin and there were too much noise from people moving about. However, I was determined to stay in bed because zomg trekking up a mountain is no bloody joke and the thought of having no sleep for the next 24 hours is not very appealing to me.

I'm not the most adventurous person on earth, but I've done my share of out doorsy adventure stuff, ie - trekking up hills and through forests to know that this fun-filled activity requires a lot of energy, water and some fitness levels to go through it. It's hard work. It's nonstop hardcore walking and trekking through rough, uneven, unpaved lanes. I already know the drill. But I had found out a little too late that Suanie expected something a little different, but more on that later. So when Suanie very excitedly told me a few weeks before about wanting to do this VOLCANO climb to catch the sunrise, I was a little skeptical. VOLCANO? TREK? A FEW HOURS? SUANIE? IS SHE KIDDING?!?!? Then again, I reminded myself that this was the same person who organised a trip to the quite challenging Chiling Falls and then I felt fairly confident that Batur wouldn't be a problem either.

So Yande, our hired tour guide for the weekend (Suanie fixed this up for us, because I'm a lazy bitch and left all organising details to her and she did an exceptional job at it!*kiss ass kiss ass*) picked us up from our hostel at about 2am. When we had to wake up at about 1 something I had a good mind to tell Suanie to do this herself because I really badly wanted to bloody sleep and it's a damn holiday and I'll sleep in if I want to but decided to just go with it. It took us about 2 hours to get to the mountain, and I slept through most of the journey. You could say I'm the worst/best passenger on earth because every time a trip takes longer than 15 minutes my system would automatically shut down. ZZZzzzz. Whenever I woke up I would notice that everything around me was covered in darkness. ZZzzzz. 2 am is still too damn early to be awake lah really.

Finally reached the foothill of the mountain and Yande arranged for a guide to take us up the mountain. It was about 4am and we were still surrounded by blackness. Without a torchlight you couldn't even see your own toes. So whoever thought they could've done this without the local guides either had a death wish or were out of their freaking minds. Paid for our guide, quick toilet break, quick intro to our mountain guide (wayan) and off into the darkness we go.

We were on the way to trek up a live 1707 km high volcano. In almost complete darkness. With nothing but a guide and our tiny LED torchlights. Walking through uneven clearings filled with rocks, pebbles and lava ashes. After about 15 mins to half an hour, we took a quick breather. We still couldn't see much but outlines of the path immediately ahead of us with the help of our torchlights. Apart from Wayan, another small guy named Ketut (who would sell us drinks when we are up on the volcano later) accompanied us too. Some small talk was made between the guides and us. Noticed a few other smaller groups ahead of us and behind us. It felt chilly, decided to put on my jacket. Nothing to see. Still too dark. This was work man. It's not some leisurely walk by the flower park. We had to focus and just keep moving. March on.

After our second or third quick stop within the first 15-30 minutes of our trek, Suanie began to show signs of cracking. At the first and second stop she was saying the expected "omg, i'm not fit man shit" which I was also also thinking to myself about myself. But after the third or fourth stop she felt I think, exponentially worse with each stop and we had to stop after almost every 20 steps. You see, she had for some unexplainable reason, JUST realised that the trek up the mountain was NOT going to be something as easy as say, a walk by the beach or even a trek through a forest reserve. We were going uphill most of the time, on very uneven ground, navigating around rocks and which stuck out at every wrong angle possible. We were both carrying backpacks with some essentials, eg, water, jackets etc. She had NOT foreseen that it would be so tough. In her mind we would just reach the peak and take pictures of the sun rise. Her brain did not process that we actually had to CLIMB this thing.

Suanie looked like she was ready to pass out, from my point of view. I shit you not. She was in very bad shape. Panting very hard, pale as a ghost, sweating, she wore the most miserable expression on her face that would shatter the hopes of even the world's biggest optimist ever. I had also suggested that we should slow down our pace because we were going quite fast, but Suanie would have none of that. She said that she was used to walking fast and that slowing down would be somewhat of an effort. Through the entire time I had also tried to encourage her through very poorly chosen words and tone (imagine how a perky cheerleader would sound like) which not only did not help her situation, but I think also made her felt so bad that she had to asked me very nicely, to STFU. I felt really stupid and horrible for making her feel worse. :( At this point in time, I have to honestly say that I also had thought Suanie wouldn't make it to the top. I didn't know what else to do or say anymore to perk her up. We still had at least another 1.5 hours to go at least and we were barely 3/4 of the way to the top. Groups which started later than us were passing us by. At this rate my OCD mind thought that we might not make it to the top in time for the sunrise. Suanie was in bad shape. We just can't go on. I was already making up my mind that this was climb was a crazy idea and that we should head straight down.

Suddenly, Wayan suggested that I should go ahead with Ketut and that he and Suanie would take it slow and catch up with us later. I had never thought that this would be an option before but it took me less than 10 seconds to agree to his suggestion. While I hoped with every fibre of my being that Suanie will make it to the top, apart of me wasn't too sure anymore. There and then I thought it was best that one of us go first so that at LEAST one of us would at least attempt to be on time to catch the sunrise which we both can enjoy later digitally. So I left her with our very abled Wayan and continued trekking with Ketut.

Read Suanie’s version of our third day Part 1 here.

The Great Bali Trip 2009 - Friday

(Been a long couple of weeks. Apologies for the lack of updates. Had work and a life to attend to, no more spare energy left to blog. No time to process pictures either. Will edit posts with pics later. :P)

Woke up relatively early for some hotel breakfast which wasn't life changing. I think I had toast, cheese & bacon - it was dry. And I had asked for boiled water because it was either that or papaya/banana/watermelon juice, coffee or tea. None of the options appealed to me. Unfortunately, boiled water tasted salty. Note to anyone who's going to go Bali - always drink bottled water. Always. Everything from the tap tastes salty. If you're anything like me and prefer your water to not taste of anything, always choose bottled water. And not any bottled water, mind you. Don't go for the one branded "Club". Club tastes weird. Go for the one manufactured under Nestle. That's still okay. But mineral water in generaly has that slight weirdish minerally taste anyway which really bothers me, but hey, give me some water with hint of mineral than full on salty one any day.

Took a walk by the beach with Suanie. It was really, really nice. Breezy, sunny, sandy, wet. Got our feet and slippers wet every time the waves decided to come and splash on us. It was fun attempting to avoid it while laughing at ourselves silly for not quite being able to run away from it. At this point of time, it felt like I didn't have a thing to worry about. All the worry just slipped away as the waves rushed back to the ocean. It was so liberating to just not care. Felt like I never wanted to go back to Real Life. It's been so long since I last felt like this. So... free.

Tonnes of tourists by the beach of course (mostly mat sallehs). Hot ones, old ones, young ones, fat ones, fit ones. There were so many white people it was almost as if we were in Hawaii. Almost. They were everywhere - sun bathing on rented beach chairs under rented beach umbrellas, surfing with rented surfboards, getting touted by #@($*@ touters selling everything from fruits to beads.

Walked back towards the paved roads and chanced upon a Starbucks. Maybe not by chance. I bet Suanie was subconsciously drawn to it because she has this Starbucks tracking device embedded into her nose and her nose led us to it. Just can't run away from the damned Starbucks. Of course we had to go in. Had our brunch of ice lemon teas (which wasn't salty) and sandwich and we were off towards Legian.

We did too much walking on this day. We passed by never ending rows of shops selling everything from tshirts to seafood and it just kept going and going and going. After a while all the shops started to looke the same. We must've walked for hours under the frying hot sun in the 1000% humidity level thinking we could get to this place called Kudeta from Legian by foot. Straight road only what. Straight straight straight. Straight my ass. We just kept walking until we felt like we couldn't walk anymore (about 3 hours I shit you not) and then decided to stop to ask for directions. Only to find out that there were still too many kms left and that it was nearly impossible to get there by foot and not die of exhaustion by the end of it (I exaggerate here. Of course you could walk it, you could walk all the way to bloody Ubud if you want to. It's not impossible, but you gotta be out of your bloody mind if you really wanted to, that's all I'm saying). Right there and then, we decided to grab a cab. And I like to quote Suanie here that "That was the best Rph30,000 (about Rm11) we've spent in Bali". That cab was practically life saving. I think we didn't even bother bargaining. Even if he charged us 50 bucks we might have taken it...... actually no, 50 bucks is a little too much. Maybe 20. or 30. Not 50, though.

I have to honestly say that I was a little apprehensive about Ku de ta at first. You know how when you get a recommendation from a friend (in this case it was Suanie's friend Ah Seng) telling you how awesome this place/food/drink/movie/book is and no matter how much you try to tell yourself not to do it you will, consciously or unconsciously set a certain level of expectation which is of course a level much higher than when you didn't know anything about the place/food/drink/movie/book? Ku de ta was like that for me. After hearing (or rather, reading) Ah Seng's rave about the place I was worried that it would end up to be some overpriced stupid tourist trap for silly rich tourists who didn't know better and therefore, not meet my expectation of it being a scenic, ambient chill out haven I had imagined it to be. I was already constructing a nasty email to Ah Seng in my mind which would begin something along the lines of "Dear LYING SON OF A BITCH! KU DE TA SUCKED..... etc."

So I was right. It didn't meet my expectations.

Kudeta trashed it to a bloody unrecognisable pulp.

The place was in the middle of nowhere, and the exterior of it was very unassuming. But once you enter the actual place itself, it felt like an oasis. Tastefully decorated with stones and wood, the entire place gives you a up market lounge/chill out area feeling. It feels like... a cross between Luna bar and Bar Savanh but a million times better. We managed to get an awesome corner overlooking the beach to catch the sunset. But eventhough it was really cloudy and we didn't manage to catch too much of the sun, being there itself was the best shit that happened to me in a long time. We didn't even say much to each other. Suanie and I were contented just sitting/lying on the couch, stuffing our faces with pork ribs and the best pizza in the world, guzzling down bottles of ice cold Bintang, and chilling. It was bliss. Suanie blurted out something like "I wished you were my boyfriend!" Ghey. lol. It is a great place to bring your partner. I don't care how much this fucks up your expectations of this place but I very highly recommend that you make a mandatory pit stop here if you're making a trip to Bali. Evening is best. No sun? No matter. Just being there is so bat shit crazy amazing you won't even miss the sun. Seriously, just go there.

We stayed till the sun had set, and decided to leave at about 6 plus? As if we had completely forgot about treacherous afternoon, we decided to try walking back to Legian via the beach route. No sun what, sure can! Yeah right. After about and hour or so, when Suanie suddenly realised that it was a terrible idea, we walked towards the tar road to hopefully flag down a taxi. Thankfully for us there were motorbike touters who happily accepted our Rph30,000 offer to zip us back to our hostel. Another fantastic Rph30,000 spent ever. The ride through the teeny tiny lanes of Kuta with the breeze in my face transported me back to Batu Gajah times where my cousins would take me joyriding around the village.... sigh.

Friday ended pretty damn perfectly.

Read Suanie’s version of our second day here.

The Great Bali Trip 2009 - Thursday Night

Sometime this time last year, Suanie called me up in the middle of the night (around 2am), asking me if I wanted to go Bali. In my half asleep mode I must've agreed to it because there we were almost a year later, in the Air Asia plane on the way to Bali, on a fine Thursday night.

Being the lazy ass that I shamelessly am, I conveniently left all the planning to Suanie. From itinerary to hostel bookings - everything was managed by Suanie via the internetz. All I had to do was sit on my ass, give her some indication of how much I was willing to spend (not a lot) and give my opinions on lodging and destination selected by Suanie. Hehehe, thanks a mill babe. Until the evening we took off, I still wasn't sure of the details of our trip. All I know was that we were going to stay in some hostel, climb some volcano (I thought she was kidding), eat some babi guling somewhere, check out the sunset at some nice expensive place and make a trip to Tanah Lot. :P

So Air Asia was on time - I know right, should've bought a 4D ticket. QZ 8395 I think. Inwardly, I was a little apprehensive about the whole swine flu thing, but thought that if it was time, it was time, let fate decide (and here I am still blogging, thank you powers that be). 3 hours and a bottle of overpriced bottled water later, we finally arrived at the Bali airport.

Have I mentioned before how much I really hate our LCCT? I have? Well, here's a reminder, I really, really, really hate LCCT with every fibre of my being. It's so chaotic, random and the layout so badly planned it was as if a 5 year old had designed it. If I was god I would used my divine powers to obliterate this sorry piece of excuse for a plane terminal away from face of this earth with my thunderbolts. Or a level 10 fireball.

By the time we got out of the Bali airport it was nightfall. Around 10 maybe? Outside the airport greeting us were swarms of touters. I thought that there were too many touters in KLIA, but in the Bali airport the numbers were multiplied by at least 5. Feeling hot, tired, cranky, and to be greeted by scums of the universe at the first step into a foreign country doesn't really make a visitor feel welcomed. I think suanie and I were ready to take the first flight back to Malaysia, or at least, I was. I don't quite know how to articulate the feeling I had at this point of time, but it was a mix of intense hatred and extreme annoyance caused in part by the uncomfortable as fuck air asia seats, partly by the touters, and partly by the fact that it was bloody late at night.

Thing is, I've been here many years ago with my family, but didn't recalled the outside bit of the airport so chaotic.

Of course we were approached by a few touters charging us some pretty ridiculous (on retrospect, not really lah) prices to take us to our hostel. Suanie being suanie layaned them very friendly-like while in my mind I was screaming at her to just ignore them, but with the obvious lack of telepathic powers, I couldn't transfer my thoughts to her. After a while they left us alone, but a couple of them had a really unfriendly face after which made me even more jittery.

We spend a little time wandering around the area looking for a legitimate taxi line or a counter, because I didn't care how third world this country I was sure that there HAD to be one! AHAH FOUND ONE! But there were like 10 people ahead of us ARGH. We spent at least 20 mins queuing and it was finally our turn. RPH 50,000 (abt RM20) to central Kuta. eventhough it was 20-30k lesser than what the touters offered I still think it was a damn rip off. Annoyance level increased twofolds.

Not only was this driver bloody unfriendly and looked like he could rob us at knifepoint, this motherless lying pond scum had the nerve to bloody tell us that he won't be able to drop us at our hostel front because the lane where the hostel was located at is too tiny for a cab to go through. We didn't argue because we didn't know better and agreed that it was okay as long as he could show us how to get to our hostel by foot. Thank you so much for the bloody vague direction you useless piece of shit. We must've spent what felt like hours (less than 15 mins tbh) wandering around the tiny badly litted lane surrounded by closed shops looking for the right lane. Kept asking every white person for the right direction because hey, in a foreign land, you can only trust another tourist to not lie to you. Suanie had a humogous rolling bag which was pretty damn horrible to carry about town with uneven lanes and at so late into the night, I felt so bad for her. Berat mata memandang......

I regret until now that I didn't take a picture of his damn cab to plaster it all over the blog and other tourist advisor sites to tell everyone to STAY AWAY from this cheating ass wipe. Because we found out the next day that he could very well enter the lane through another way. ANGER! HULKRAGE! CRUSHCAB! CRUSHDRIVER!

We finally found the hostel - which looked really dodgy and shabby on the outside. If we weren't already disheartened from our airport and cabby experience, the exterior of the hostel would've killed all our spirits. At this point, we couldn't care less anymore. Just give us a damn place to chuck our things sit and lie down and a place to shower kthx. We checked in, walked in, and lo and behold, the interior was bloody fantastic. It was like we walked into a secret garden which as maintained by fairy creatures. 2 swimming pools, lots of plants, well maintained lawn. Ever 5 steps we took Suanie and I went "WOAH. WOAH. WOAH!". Definitely more than meets the eye.

We were shown to our room, which had all the basic amenities, 2 super single beds & blankets, a tv, mini bar, cupboards, aircond, shower, toilet, sink. No toiletries though, but that was expected so no complains there.

So I thanked the heavens that something went right that night, chucked our stuff, and together with Suanie, went out to the nearest pub for some booze.

After a couple of big bottled Bintang and a glass of arrak cocktail, we were ready to call it a night..... not too peacefully because everything creaked and the walls were too thin but oh well, one has to stop bitching sometime, right?

I think at the end of the night, I might have said something to the effect that we've been through what was probably the worst parts of the trip and things could only get better. But not sure if it was out loud or in my mind only, heh.

No pictures on the first day because while going through our fantastic night adventures, I really couldn't be bothered. Will beautify post later after stealing some from Suanie.

Read Suanie's version of our first "day" here.

P/s: Mum, if you are reading this, we were never at any point of time, in danger. It was just a little scary at times, but mostly a whole lot of inconvenience. The whole place very safe one, hehe. You know lah bloggers. Have to add in more spice to make story interesting mah. :P