KL snapshots!

Ventured on a solo trip to KL last Thursday - Sunday!

It was a pretty short trip but I was happy to be back there, and by myself. Everyone should travel by themselves once in a while! It's not lonesome at all and I'm always surrounded by so many people here it's nice to stop your mind for a breather and just walk around happily.

Packing...bought my sunglasses a cute case, I'm in the habit of smashing sunglasses by accident. This brand of paper-mask 'clinie' (korean), from Guardian, is the best I've ever used! And I've used MANY. Rather pricey for drugstore brands ($5) but the effect is really instant - the whitening one whitens, the hydrating one hydrates, the anti-pimple one clears blemishes... I love to use it every week!

Waiting at comfy area, pre-boarding. T1's renovating. Note my super good sunglasses from ForeverNew. Look like Korean with it? Teehee...

The requisite airplane wingshot!
This is the homely backpacker place where I put up for the 2 nights! It's just behind the food street Jalan Alor and facing it is a row of cosy cafes, sports bars, foot massage joints.
Me and bestie once stayed here, 'rainforest bed and breakfast' 10 years ago. The exterior still looks as good as ever! The interior is a different story... experienced bedbugs for the first time and my hair still stands when I spot one at obscure hotels!

Such an awesomely sweet wedding cake! Bee Mine!

Walking tour... I decide to head to the right...
Was walking from backpack place to KLCC Twin Towers, around 1 hour's walk. Got slightly tanned also, realized SPF 50 does not cut it under the blazing KL sun. Was hiding in the mall during the noonish hours before I turned chao-tah! Walking behind these dudes for the better part of an hour...judging from their attire, should be aussie or new zealander...

Process of getting chao-tah... Step one, take self-photo when it's almost noon...

I wonder who came up with this quote...
Souvenir for Dad, he loves this kind of thing. At 60 plus and still a biker!

At the row where my guesthouse is located, this flashy guesthouse always has many friendly angmohs sitting outside!


Look at all the foreigners...behind me, Japanese! Food is kinda overpriced but still okay for us.


Oyster omelette and satay and I had lots of the iced teh tarik!
Some nail art... looks like cake! Very happy with it, it's been some time since I treat myself to a manicure.

Me at the same roti mamak from 10 years backpacking trip! We were very much on a budget and I fell in love with the roti pisang, a ripe, sweet banana put into the canai...cripsy and sweet and bursting with flavor! I could eat this everyday.
With the morning read, am now into Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a rather gothic and mysterious novel, bestselling spanish author. In the guesthouse there are many books and magazines left behind by travelers and we could choose to bring along with us some of those reads. To my surprise I found two of his novels there.
Had KL bakkutteh. Vastly different from JB's, Segamat's, etc. I like the 'dry' version the best! There is also a clear ginger-chicken soup that tastes great and not similar to 'hong zhao chicken' or 'sesame chicken', perhaps it's unique to KL.
On the road with J. Traffic in KL is as horrendous as ever, I cannot imagine driving to work and there are real speed demons, mat rempits, jaywalkers... I cannot fathom how gutsy you must be to drive in KL!

Went to eat this really yummy old-skool dish similar to our beef hor fun! J told me it was still there since 20 years ago. Note the retroish grilles, clock, tiles!

This taiwanese dessert was really popular the way bubble tea is popular here. Underneath it is chinchow flavored shaved ice which melts in the mouth and the orange and white things are sort of like chinese marshmallows...chewy and pillowy. It's really delicious though pricey, RM 6.90 seems a bit too much. Heard it's cheaper in other non shopping area though!

Mahathir's bread, or so I've been told, he opened this gourmet bread called 'Loaf' in Pavillion. The bistro looks really nice but I did not manage to try it...

Live music! They were quite good! 'Fly me to the moon... ' harmonized well. I did give them a huge tip!
I had to eat a meal at OldTown, I'm a faithful supporter... here's some tomyam rice dish. It was yummy but nothing beats hands down the rendang nasi!

This OldTown outlet was one of the best vantage points to just sit and watch the crowd at Jalan Alor go by. I felt that the days went by so fast, and there were so many places I had yet to revisit. I wonder if the bbqpork with floss buns are still found in Petaling street, and the really gigantic baos that are fondly named after a porn actress with large 'buns' herself. Looking back, I am rather amazed at myself, how I could just take a coach, naively, alone, without any guidebook, and somehow find my host, first a guy who was and still is a musician, stayed in Cheras, had fun exploring the city at 18, and then again at 19 doing it the real backpack way with Bestie. Later on in the era of cheap budget flights, KL just became a stop-over to other places, a place to wait to go on to the next destination.

I wonder where's my next destination! I hope to travel again really soon and hopefully a small adventure to a place I've never been before.

unexpected, that's the way life should be.

It was nice to stop and 'smell the flowers', literally... I was covered with their sweet scent and many as I tried to help my groom and bride friend's car to 'doll up'. Well, they told me that the car's front centrepiece did not fly off during the course of the day... thankfully! The unethical hours I was up this week (3 nights till 3 -5 am) and a weird sicklyness combined to make me entirely cranky and somehow, reminiscent. Maybe I have been keeping myself busy enough not to admit that I too, like other human beings, do get lonely. Some people are blessed, they meet their true love early in life. Compatible in every way and perfect for each other and both like each other too. The rest of us have to trip and somersault through this world and what it has to offer, all the time keeping an eye out for someone that we'd like enough to spend the rest of our lives with.

I realize that time whizzes by and I forget to remember the things I miss. I miss the warm feeling of having someone's shoulder. Missing them doesn't mean I want to go back to the way things were or back to status quo. It just shows that often the simple and sweet gestures and moments are the ones that will stay in my heart, rather than the ostentatious display. And perhaps, it is like this, with me. The ones who capture a part of my heart, more than I'm willing to admit, fill up the broken shards piece by piece. I'm not using them to make me feel better, but in a way, it contributes to my healing, to replace every torn memory with a sweet one.

Dear future children, these months could make up some episodes of 'How I met your father.' Maybe I've met him already. Maybe not. In any case... it sure is better to finally live my life instead of observing others', and enjoy what I've been given, and have things to look forward to. There are many public tragedies that have been largely given sympathy, currently the Japan earthquake-tsunami-nuclear fallout. There are many personal tragedies that do not make sense, which nobody knows about, or care to understand. In the light of how fragile life is, and how many things we take for granted, I hope that I will, once again, remember that love is patient, and to choose wisely.

"Sometimes the best decision in life does not make sense at all."

-Ted, How I Met Your Mother.


Live-flowered-heart...

friday photos

Some nice pictures. With the blazing sun followed by raging rain, it's nice to just look at nice pictures with some chillout tunes especially when you're under the weather.

I've been singing the 'waitinggg' song (yes, with 3 'g's') for some time now and this week it seems that an ultimatium needs to be inevitably reached. I can't believe how much depends on how much some people 'like' me, rather than on my expertise and I have to say a pretty face (or in my case, professional/capable-looking face), works wonders. Plus a natural confidence of course, and honest, truthful sincerity that has gone to the dogs these days. I'm glad they liked me.

Looking forward to Sunday!

The Places We Should Have Gone

penguin love

I shall not liken my life to a Taiwanese drama although, recently, it does seem that way! Gosh! But sometimes life imitates art more than the other way round, and such are the life stories that inspire all of us to somehow stay strong through the best and worst of times.

Caught up with some friends and over a lazy Sunday brunch, we enquired about our mutual friends and how they were faring. Our thoughts were with a couple whom we all knew. All of us believed that they were the ‘type’ that would settle down fast, having attended marriage preparation classes, and looking stable and secure in their relationship. So we were concerned when it seemed that things were not rosy. After all, in previous years past, they had broken up for a year’s duration and then reconciled again. During that year, I saw that there were a few girls who were attracted to him. He could have easily gone out and started something with any one of them. But he kept them at arm’s length and waited.

This guy is so patient, my friend remarked. And it was as if everything was illuminated there and then. So many times, we have speculated, wondered, questioned this guy. Why is he hanging on when there could be someone out there who would make him very happy? Why does the romantic prognosis seem so bleak?

So many times, I forget. That Love is patient. Out of the million and one things I can say about love, about relationships, about each other, about our feelings, and thoughts, and daydreams… we forget sometimes, that we need to wait, or learn how to wait.

After a year of not being together before reconciliation, we thought that their issues had been settled. Apparently the lady wanted the guy to take the lead, in many ways; however, his personality is more of the laid-back type and he was not able to change himself for her sake, as hard as he tried.

I thought to myself, if I loved the guy, I wouldn’t want him to change. Isn’t that a farcical love? If I love you, I would tell you, to be yourself. To stay the same. I would love you the way you are. As idealistic as it sounds. Because it was you I fell in love with, was happy with, cherished moments with.

Isn’t his love for her like the penguin, who waits for his mate to come back from the frozen lands, waiting, watching, hoping…

The penguin can wait, for a hundred days, for his mate. He waits for a hundred days without eating. Starving. Love is patient. He waits, for her return.

The girl penguin knows the guy penguin loves her by his gift of pebbles. The nests are built by pebbles. And when the guy penguin gives the girl pebbles, she knows he is serious about her.

When a penguin finds its mate, they stay together forever.

Love is patient indeed.

last weekend was chill

this time round

It says a lot, I think, about the things we remember or choose not to forget.

And these days I find myself waking up with a smile on my face, despite really stressful days. For those who have shared my days, they have no idea how much it means to me. Those who bothered - Jelly tried his bestest to bring me out for a good time during those worst weeks, I said to him that I really hope he can find someone special. I know he has trouble in that department, and I long for the day where it will be easy for him. I'll always remember those generous gestures. There are others, of course. The friend who spent valentines with me. The lady who always kept in touch with words of courage and never asked for anything in return. The penpal who attended one month of church with me. And the boy who attended the next month, ensuring that at my lowest depths of misery, my soul was still fed.

I've always been thankful for the people God has placed in my life. Sure, there may be a thousand and one worries and hopes and daydreams in a woman's mind, but I shall not try to do things in my own wilful nature, as I'm so prone to, and even, expected to - but let's not negate the fact that without sounding over-spiritual, there is a purpose and reason to everything, and perhaps in time to come we will all know exactly why these all transpires.

For now, though I dearly wish to know what the future holds for all of us, may this desire not force me to forget the beauty of the moment, the gift of the present. And the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me; was when I, unexpectedly brimming with tears, and really embarassed; was to gingerly, gently, stroke my hair and put his arm around me. He's a real sweetheart and any girl would be so lucky to have his love.

be still and know

Find myself on the verge of tears lately infront of unexpected people.
I think I am too stressed. I need a holiday.