Snap.

Yes V.

2008-08-30T04:14:00.001-07:00

I will do another write-up

promise, just not now cause I stupidly signed up for 5 As and I'm dying... :S

Singapore July 2008 (Amazing Race Part 2: Newton)

2008-08-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

Because I'll be getting my IGCSE results tomorrow, it seems that I wouldn't be able to catch some shuteye at all tonight so I'll just continue babbling.

Newton Foodcourt:

O.o

After the botanical gardens we headed of the Newton food court.

I remember this place vividly cause I had driven from Malaysia to Singapore once and well ended up here...

Anyway, the challenge was (sorry to say) really idiotic to me as I had completely no patience for numbers at all, my estimate from the frogs and the birds thing was horrible and to locate some random number almost drove me insane.

Vanesa proposed the divide and conquer strategy which worked fairly well, cept that I didn't get to conquer cause I read the wrong number, then we had to do another mathematical conundrum, count the number of triangles in the giant triangle.

I don't know why someone even bothered noticing those triangles! but well we lost that challenge, which was a hard one, so I don't really see it as a loss, instead more of a pat on the back cause I knew almost instantly that I wouldn't have been able to bother either.

But I did attempt: i got 40 Triangles
and the answer they got was: 42
and the answer was : 44!

so kudos to me for trying and getting close.

Like every failure though, there was a consequence. We had a 5 minute penalty and had to sing a song---

but there was a glitch. It had to be in 3 Languages (oh joy right?)

Happy birthday was the easiest song. It has a universal tune & meaning and as for the languages:

we chose Chinese- so thanks lao shi (no sarcasm intended)
and English of course
and Malay.

course the malay sounded slightly odd, being so used to Indonesian, I suppose it was a minor culture shock, though I should be ashamed as I am a malay myself. Well, it was selamat hari jadi which when directly translated to Indonesian meant the day you were made. like literally.

unlike Ulang Tahun. Recurring year.

Strange. Oh well- this pretty much shows I have no talent for languages.

Anyway, I've uploaded the video since I didn't take much pictures while I was scarfing down really REALLY strange wanton mie and cendol with Vanesa who took- tiger prawn noodle ? Idk but it was seriously odd.

Bali June 2008 (Part 2: Arrival)

2008-08-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

So after safely landing, which was no problem for me (unlike take-off) we walked out of the plane and down onto the tarmac. The noise from the turbines was almost unbearable and it took long walking down the stairs as there were so many people. It was hilarious when Eric proposed that we take a picture on the tarmac, though I would have readily agreed, if I had not thought it was against some sort of violation to stand on plane parking spaces.

It was BALI!!!!!! Being unoriginal, people (including me) kept saying, "It's been so fast, I can't believe we are finally here!"

Anyway... so we got all our luggage, which was surprisingly quick (or maybe it was because we were so overjoyed and ecstatic) and then we walked through the airport doors and into Bali.

and Bali was-

hot.

The girls got into a car, the driver was a very nice guy- whose name I can no longer recall (but I will in time I hope) he was a really nice guy, and not being able to remember his name irritates me.

The guys got into their own car, it had no driver so either Eric, Pinnan or Erwin had to drive.

As we had not seen the villa before, I had my doubts and Alda and I had long lengthly conversations on what to expect and what not, but upon arrival.... omg. omg. omg. we could have shit in our pants. It was -----

I still can't find the words for the place
beautiful? that could not describe it enough
Pretty?
???

Celestial? perhaps so, it depends on how you've lived all your life, and upon placing my gaze upon that celestial abode I was stunned, tongue-tied and guilty for doubting Jessica's word (she had said villa, but I thought Devina's Puncak villa from which I had come home with typhoid.)

OMG OMG OMG, I suppose everyone had their expectations, but they too, upon seeing it were blown entirely away (or was it just my imagination?), as if we were just sand on the beach being blown away by the villa. It was really a villa. not just an Indonesian house that was called a Villa, but a VILLA with awesome bathrooms, a villa with air conditioning, a villa with a t.v, a villa with a pool, a villa with a BEACH!

The last paragraph just makes me sound as if I've never stayed in a 5 star before. hahahaha- it's not funny- rest assured that I have though- but I have also stayed in places that may as well have been unheard of to men, and that my friends have led me to how beautiful Jessica's villa is.

The BEACH!! we dumped our bags and changed quickly into Lio's fashion (as we were now in Bali and not Jakarta) Sandals to slippers, Designer tank tops to unknown shirts, Jeans to shorts. This was Bali.

The beach was white, perfectly clean and empty. The sea was actually blue (unlike the muddy hue that you get when you spend 2 hours .... which is more than a plane trip to bali, driving) and the water was beautifully clean, crystal clear as it hit the shore- this beach it seemed was connected to Hyatt- which explained it's cleanliness.

There were little gondola's every 100 yards or so and the boys, who were easily shaken by the lack of humans (or the bule girls) had headed of to the west in search for a better and perhaps more exciting view.

The girls on the other hand, lingered awhile till we decided to sit in one of those gondolas. Hanna and I were taking pictures like crazy and in the end we had gotten Asa and Cherisha to model for truly awesome shots (which will not be posted here).

The Pictures:

The Villa:

The view of the villa from above

Hanna, getting ready for the beach

Alda and Jessica testing the bed.

Alda unpacking.

The Beach:

Joey and Eric, getting ready to give us lung cancer.

Cherisha, Alda, Jessica, Asa, Mega

Mega, Cherisha, Asa, Jessica, Alda
There are some who are physically challenged.lol.

Soni, Valerie, Asa, Alda, Hanna, Mega, Lio, Guido, Pinnan, Erwin, Joey , John, Eric

Jessica, Mega, Alda

Mega. Perhaps the acknowledgment of her bday has led her to this.

Hanna, Jessica, Asa, Cherisha, Mega

Eric, supposed to be his casting pic

Bali June 2008 (Part 1: Airport)

2008-08-10T04:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh! I have so much to post and I can't do it all with such slow wifi. Yes WIFI! and it's this slow... what should take seconds is taking minutes- even *whispers* google!

okay lets have a microintroduction while I wait for the first five pictures to load.

This Bali trip was planned by my class Sec 4 IGCSE2 (or my ex-class :( now ) . There are sensitive touchy touchy sentimental reasons on how and why we pieced together such a trip and why we were all willing to go- a story for next time.

Anyway these are the basic details of the Bali trip:

Duration : 5 Days 4 Nights (we returned on the day before school started)
Airline: Mandala
Duration of flight: 1.5 Hours
Accommodation: Jessica's Villa
Chaperons: Ms. Jean, Mr. Mill, Mr Erwin (yay! Underage adults)
"Chaperons": Mr Wahyu (who apparently turned invisible)
Mr Allan .T (who disappeared of the face of this earth after telling us how hardrock excited him)

Original Itinerary (This is as much as I can recall):

Day 1: Arrival at the airport
Day 2: Watersports
Day 3: Waterbom
Day 4: SHOPPING <--- Ultimate!
Day 5: Home

Part 1.

1.

Airport, we all had to go to arrive at the airport by 8.00 or was it 8.10. I can't remember. Apparently I had overpacked. I brought 2 bags, one empty and one filled with clothes. Everyone was there, well nearly everyone except the tutors, Alda and Mega.

Cherisha had picked up the guys pretty early and I can still remember Eric commenting on how everyone was always late for school but was not late for this.

One of the most embarrassing things was Lio that it- that thing that abomination (thats the word) (ehm.) he was dressed like he was from the dump or something, wearing what he always wore everyday but to add icing on to the cake, he wore hotel sandals. Oh joy. Alda and I felt mean, but it was hilarious.

Lets not talk about dark things.

The tickets that we had managed to get hold of (thanks to Hanna) were only Rp. 800.000.00 (return tickets) per person. so thats like $80. But it was Mandala- which I had never heard of in my life till- well, till they proposed it. I had expected it to be like Adam Air- or even Lion Air (you know those planes that disappear over the Bermuda... in Indonesia's case Sulawesi, those planes that go down instead of go up, endangering countless lives of innocent humans, like- ehm me?) and I was not wrong. Except we survived. But I had come prepared, I wrapped my phone, ipod AND handphone charger in waterproof plastic....

I sat next to Asa on the plane and apparently Pinnan and her thought that it was funny when I looked like I was about to start hyperventilating during take-off. It's only the take-off that I'm afraid of. once we're in air it's like we'll never die....

Here are the pictures of us at the airport. Coincidentally, it was also Mega's 16th birthday but we planned to surprise her later.

Us waiting early in the morning.

Cherisha, Jessica, Asa, Pinan waiting in front of the airport

Cherisha and Asa

Hanna (calling Mega), Valerie, Mr Mill (that shoulder), Guido, John

Soni asleep (whats new about that?)

Cherisha & Jessica outside the terminal

The Plane.

Cherisha, Jessica & Mega Sitting behind us

Me (uhhh) and Asa

Mega!!! 16 years old... :D

Singapore July 2008 (Amazing Race Part 1)

2008-08-10T02:59:00.000-07:00

One would hardly ever dedicate a whole blog to traveling when she barely boards planes but I have been traveling recently and am about to start traveling abit more so I decided why the heck not.

_________

Anyway these are pictures from my trip to Singapore, where I spent the weekend at the MGS Regional Youth Conference; Give Peace a Chance. Unfortunately, I didn't spend time taking pictures of the places much, which I regret. These are people pictures :D

________

So what exactly was the amazing race about? well it wasn't as extreme as the show on AXN instead it was an activity in which 24 groups were to participate in. Each group was named named after a country.

In my case my group was called PERU! Led by Klarissa Khor who had a very bubbly personality.

There were 7 pit stops and 7 hours to go all around Singapore, in each pit stop, we had to complete a challenge to get points.

Though we did not win, our group was awesome :D

The locations that we visited we

1. The Embassies
2. The botanical gardens
3. Newton Foodcourt
4. The Wuchang (did I spell it right) School
5. The National Library of Singapore
6. The Singapore Bridge
__________________________

At the Botanical Gardens/Embassies:

The first challenge we completed was to find the addresses of various embassies in the area aided by map which eventually led us to the Botanical Gardens.

Then to complete the pit stop, the second half of the challenge was held at the botanical gardens. We had to count the number of frogs and birds on the wall. Was it 34? or 28? or 12?

For some reason I have no picture of the wall, though I am positive I took it.

Traveling:
BMW baby!

I suppose if you're used to traveling this way everyday it's okay, but for a person born and bred in a country where the public transport is only used by 4% of it's population (which is way more than a 2 hundred million) it is not easy at all. I suppose thats also the reason why I can't run 2.4km without dying after.

The Ez link card was mega cool! hahahahahahahaha it was a relief that I didn't have to fiddle with coins, which my friend jennifer still has.

Unfortunately due to my slow internet, this is my part one. There Are still a bunch of photos.

So you all who have been waiting a month or so for these I'll post them up later :D