On the road again....

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Pics are up!

Use the link on the right or click here.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Nothing Like Home

Well I'm back in E-town. The weather is apparently "warm" but my body is telling me otherwise. It's also telling me that I should be sleeping when I am awake.

I arrived in Vancouver at 11:30AM after a 15 hour flight. I slept for a whole of 30 min on the flight, despite the fact that I had maybe 30min of sleep the night before. So I spent my time watching movie after movie on the airplane. I love Singapore Airlines - you get your own video screen (with plenty of movies, tv shows, and games), the food is decent, they give you free decks of cards if you ask, and the service is impeccable (I even saw a steward walk a toddler down the aisle). For interest sake, here are the movies I watched to and from Singapore:

- Bridget Jones Diary 2
- Finding Neverland
- Ray
- The Aviator
- Closer
- Bride and Prejudice
- Ocean's 12
- 2046 (a HK movie)

After such a long journey, it felt good to step onto Canadian soil. It felt especially good to line up at the "resident" line at customs. I feel more privileged than proud to be a Canadian. We have so much here: freedom, democracy, high standard of living, public education and health care, a plethora of cultures, vast lands of wildlife and nature... I could go on. I'm not saying that other countries don't have what we have or that we have everything, I'm just expressing my appreciation for the many things that we do have and take for granted.

Interestingly enough, we didn't plaster Canadian flags all over our bags. Many people thought we were Singaporean, until we spoke. And when they asked, we didn't have any qualms stating that we were Canadian. However, there were some confusion over the fact that one can be both Chinese AND Canadian.

So back to Vancouver... it was overcast and soggy. I stayed with my feisty cousin L ( I hope you found your faceplate) and while she attended a wedding I had dinner with P & C at Shabusan - the all-you-can-eat Japanese/Korean bbq place. Yes, more food. We ate until we couldn't do anything else :).

Sunday, 4:30PM: I'm finally back home. My mom greeted me with a big hug and told me the funniest story. When the earthquake happened, my two older brothers, god-mom, and several of her friends were freaking out about me. My mom, however, thought to herself "she's not in Indonesia when it happened so she should be ok," and really wasn't all that concerned. When ppl kept bugging her she thought that she must look like a bad mother for not worrying so she pretended to worry. Hehe, my mom is great!

Monday: Back to work! My plan was to upload some pics after work but I ended up sleeping instead. Now I'm finishing my laundry and trying to clean up the explosion of clothes, gifts, and souvenirs in my apartment.

Pictures to come tomorrow!

Friday, April 01, 2005

One Stop Till Home...

Well I'm back in Singapore after 5 days in the broiling heat of Kuching, East Malaysia. I read in the paper a couple of days ago about the earthquake in Indonesia... which we were no where near. I apologize for the silence, but I wasn't really thinking about blogging when I was sitting by the beach. I think there was internet access at the hotel we were staying in, but there was only one terminal and it was continuously occupied. So yes, Jules and I are safe and painfully alive (we both got badly sun-burned).

Impressions of Kuching (I realize I need to go back and give my impressions of Indonesia... but anyways):

Kuching is a small city of 500 000 ppl. Fairly quiet, not much to see or do but the residents here are quite well-off. The houses are large and new, same goes for the vehicals on the roads. The city is surprisingly clean and orderly, and fairly westernized. When we visited the waterfront, we were surprised to see many empty shop stalls and relatively few people walking about. We tried to find local hawker centeres but they were all closed. All along this picturesque walkway were signs of better times... in hopes of a future economic boost from tourism.

We didn't stay in the city, but got to lounge around at the Holiday Inn Damai Beach Lagoon resort (4 stars). It was my first time staying at a resort, it all seemed fairly luxurious... for me anyways. The hotel itself was quiet, and at one point we had the beach all to ourselves. The food of course was overpriced, so a couple of times we ate at a roadside restaurant just minutes from the hotel.

Tuesday was play-in-the-ocean day. We weren't in the water for very long, but it was enough to get us burnt - badly. I've never been burnt this bad before, I'm talking about legs, shoulders, front and back side. My previous experience in the tropics or high-altitude taught me that it takes me a LONG time for me to burn. What I failed to consider was the effects of doxyclycline (anti-malaria). Yikes! I'm better now, however I'm not looking forward to itchy, peeling skin.

On Wednesday we went to Bako National Park. We hired a van to take us to the Kamung Bako Village, at which point we had to hire a boat to take us the park. We took the Lintang trail, a 5.25 Km hike through jungle and desert-like forests. The trail was challenging enough with some steep ascents and boggy paths. Took us about 3.5 hrs with a couple of pit stops, and at the end we saw 3 monkeys hanging out in the mangrove. We were completely drenched in sweat, not because of exertion but the heat.

Thursday was another lounge-day. I finally got some good reading done, and some time to just... think and not-think. The scenery was so beautiful, especially with the ocean waves rhythmically crashing on the shore, the wind rattling the coconut tress, and the voices of birds giving melody to this symphony of creation. I am grateful that I have Someone to thank for all this.

So now is the long journey home. I have an overnight stop in Vancouver and then... Edmonton! I'm looking forward to my bed and wearing clean clothes. A burger and fries would be nice too.

Pictures to be posted up in a few days!

Monday, March 28, 2005

All Airports Should Have Free Internet Access

So our flight to Kuching has been delayed 2 hours! But thankfully we have free internet access here at the airport. We took the MRT and got to see more of Singapore... which seems to be consisted mainly of apartment buildings and food courts. I've been quite fascinated with the mosaic of cultures here. There are 4 official languages - English is one of them and helps a foreigner like me navigate easily through the city. I suppose if I had to live in a city in Asia, Singapore would be one of my top choices because it's so clean here.. and likely the most "westernized." But, apparently the pace here is fast and many professionals are stressed out. This is a place to make money and to spend it.

Well - my time on the computer terminal is almost up. See you in Kuching (hopefully).

Sunday, March 27, 2005

The Fellowship Has Broken

Today was a sad day...Jules and I parted ways with Dot and Mimi. Tomorrow they head back to the cooler climes of Canada while we head to East Malaysia. We're staying the night at Aunty Agnes, the mom of one of Jules' friend. When we come back, we'll be staying one more night in Singapore so it made sense to leave some luggage here.

Though it seemed a long time, our two weeks together went by quickly.. if that makes any sense. We did a lot together, and share many, many moments laughing at ourselves (thanks to Mimi's over-active imagination). Most of it was shear craziness, and would be so_not_funny to everyone else. For example, how can I explain the "removal of headrests" ride, the "shrimp guy" joke, or the "what are the drivers thinking of" game? Anyways, my time with these gals will be remembered and treasured by me for a long, long time. I'll think back when I'm old and wrinkled with age... and laugh at our sillyness. We'll always have Jalan Indonesia.

While Easter Sunday was celebrated at church this morning, I haven't had time to really reflect and give thanks. I suppose I should end this now and do so....

Friday, March 25, 2005

Sweating in Singapore

Hello again from SE Asia!

We made it to the swanky city-state of Singapore, which I've affectionally dubbed as Yuppie-Ville Central or Clean-Version-of-Hong-Kong. The journey here was tiring. We woke up at 4:15 AM to leave Dot's home by 5 AM. I didn't fully understand why we had to leave so early to make the 12:20PM flight out of Jakarta, esp considering we're 1.5 Hr drive away. Then we hit the infamous traffic jams of Indonesia; 1.5 hours became 4. Craziness! Thankfully, we got there with plenty of time to spare, and eventually got my plane tickets for my return trip (right when we had to board our flight).

We arrived in Singapore and made our way to Ms. T's condo. Ms. T is a family friend of Dot and she has graciously opened her place for our stay here...while she stays with her parents! I've been quite overwhelmed with the hospitality that we've been receiving; we've been welcomed with open arms and generous hearts. I think all of us are feeling somewhat guilty for taking gifts which we are unable or unexpected to repay. But I suppose this is the essence of grace.

Dot and Mimi are on a mission to EAT. And judging by the hawker foods we've eaten so far, I can totally understand. SO TASTY! The next few days will be more relaxing with no set plans other than going to the night safari and Sunday Easter service at Wesley Community Church. On Monday, Dot and Mimi are returning to Canada and Jules and I will head to Kuching, Malaysia. We bought a nice flight/hotel package today and are looking forward to RnR at Damai Beach resort.

Not sure if I'll have access to email again. But I'm signing off now to watch the ending of a Taiwanese soap opera (I'm currently typing from Dot's Aunt's computer). Mello-drama here I come!

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

The Quickie Summary

For the past few days we:

- ate
- shopped
- play with dog (Woody)
- ate
- visited volcano
- went to tailor(s)
- had full-body massage (somewhat traumatic but I ain't writing about it here)
- ate

Strange things eaten thus far:

- durian (my mom would be proud)
- various other fruits (yum)
- fried frog legs (yum)
- frog stomach soup (not-so-yum)
- snake (yum yum!)

After numerous attempts at phoning and exchanges of email, I was able to get my plane ticket stuff sorted out. I had to get a police report filed, which was conveniently done by Dot's uncle who has police-friends. Now all I have to do is pay $30 US to get my ticket re-issued at the airport (before they wanted me to go to the Jakarta office).

Tomorrow is our last day here in Bandung and it’s going to be fairly tight with visiting relatives, shopping, and eating. All of us are feeling fairly bloated with the eating and lack of physical activity. Each of us (oh, I forgot to introduce everyone: Jules, Dot, and Mimi) have fallen to some sort of sickness, but Dot - the native Indonesian - has only gotten slightly motion sick.

Tiredness is setting in… got to get some rest before the next stretch of madness.

Laters,
Di