Krabi 2016
Day 1
Let me begin by saying that this is the most spontaneous overseas trip I've been to - no tours booked beforehand, no plans, no idea of what we're going to do besides some vague feel-like-doings, and no idea how. The only things we've booked were the plane tickets and the accommodation.
The driver bringing us from the airport to the villa got lost but refused to let us know, so he pretended to stop by his agency for a toilet break when he was really there to ask for directions.
The villa is amazing. It has a pool, big beds, and the best housekeeping service ever. Part of that is thanks to Michael's natural charisma and his ability to accidentally flirt with Thai ladies, which happens a lot in the trip.
For the first night, we headed to Aonang Beach (the only place nearby / a touristy shopping street) to walk around, have dinner, book a tour, and go to some bars for drinks and girls - some of their primary goal. It's unsurprisingly my first time drinking in the company of women whose job scopes are mostly to flirt with customers. The night didn't last too long because it was day one and we had an early morning the next day.
Day 2
Us with the tour guide, Mr Cho, whom I'll talk more about
The awesome housekeepers of the villa made breakfast for us before most of us even woke up. After that, a tut tut arrived to fetch us from our doorstep to the start point of the tour, all part of the package.
Our tour guide, Mr Cho, is a reggae man, full of energy, spice, passion, fun and nonsense. To sum the tour up, a speed boat brought us around to look at different bays, beaches, caves, and stuff. We got to dive head in into the bay for swimming, hang around in a beach with really violent waves, snorkel in another, and had free cookhouse-esque lunch. Made friends with some of the other tourists in the process.
When the tour ended, the tourists were all dispatched based on their accommodations. We and a family were the last and we all had to wait really long, so they got really pissed and provoked a fight with Mr Cho. It was quite entertaining because nobody was taking them seriously and Mr Cho wasn't even in charge of the transport; he just happened to be there.
Our tut tut never came so Mr Cho's friend drove us back in a lorry just when it was starting to pour icy needle-like rain. The journey back was painful; we were cowering and shivering, so we decided to play games of scissor-paper-stone and the losers would have to take off their shirt first, and when he loses again, he has to stand and embrace the rain. It was a ride filled with screams and sadistic laughter.
The moment we got back to the villa, we jumped into the warm pool and refused to get out and open the door, because we remember not having turned the air-con off. So, we just kind of skinny-dipped a while, until we decided to play another scissor-paper-stone of death to determine the tribute who would open the door and turn the air-con off, but the housekeepers came and save us just in time. Still, some of us refused to leave the warm comfort of the pool.
Day 3
The previous night was long. Under the influence of alcoholic courage, I said some stuff that I would've regretted not saying, but I had to face the aftermath, which turned out to be okay. Anyway, the day started late because everyone was tired. By the time I woke up, the breakfast was gone, along with electricity because the whole of Aonang got cut off.
We booked a car and two bikes and went on a journey to find the Western Union because Jaryl ran out of money already. To his defense, we all severely underestimated our spendings, because "how much money can you spend on a beach," right?
It was entertaining being a passenger in a car driven by Kent and navigated by Gabriel, because Gabriel's navigation sucked and Kent was all about safety. Imagine how he felt watching Michael on his bike - speeding, going crazy on his own, and making senseless maneuvers.
But we arrived at Krabi Town - our destination - in one piece.
That night, we headed out and I decided that it would be waste not to be a pillion, and yup, it would've been a waste not to be a pillion. Also, I made a yolo decision to have trust in Michael's biking despite what we saw earlier in the day :')
I decided to skip the drinking for the night, a decision I regretted.
Day 4
Everyone was mostly dead except Gabriel and me because Gabriel came back early the previous night and I didn't go at all. We went for a kayaking tour through some mangroves. It was nice to watch the surroundings. As expected, Gabriel and Lai's boat was filled with funny angst. We dubbed it the 笨船。It means 'stupid boat'.
Kayaking was a half-day activity, so we returned to the villa right after. For the rest of the day, we mostly chilled and slept and woke up again in the evening to get to Krabi Town again for the night market.
There was a fire dance show, some other shows, a lot of food, souvenir shops, etc. I just kind of soaked in the mood and enjoyed the last touristy things we do while it lasted.
The night market
Even later that night, we returned to the bar we went in day one and apparently day three and drank and watched Clement get drunk and stuff and by the time we returned, it was two hours before we had to wake up again.
Day 5
I really like this picture
Basically, we returned to Singapore.
I miss this trip. It's here that I got myself to do things I never would've done had I not met these people as well as things I've always intended to do but never did. Now I'm just looking forward to my solo ORD trip but hoping that it won't be too lonely.
Labels: overseas, places, things that happened
Red Line Memories (part 2)
Singapore MRT's red line
Last year, I wrote a blog post sharing some memories I had of various places in Singapore's red line, but I didn't really finish writing that post because it was way too long. So, I'm going to finish it up now.
Toa Payoh
This was a place where my family and I always went when I was in secondary school. It's a beautiful neighbourhood with nearly nothing. The only reasons I can think of for ever coming here is to eat or to utilise the rooftop garden of some HDB flats.
There was this breakfast kopitiam-esque shop hidden in between two buildings that had, in my opinion, really good laksa, but no one in my family really liked it. When I was a kid, I would bug my parents to come here for breakfast so we could have the laksa, along with half-boiled egg, bread, and hot milo.
Another memory of this place includes counting down to the end of some years at a rooftop garden with the mehmehs. There was once we sat in a circle and talked about our new year's resolutions. I mentioned wanting to find inner peace. Lol. Now, I'm the epitome of repressed inner chaos.
Novena
Moving on: Novena. It's where Tan Tock Seng hospital is. When my grandfather got hospitalised for the first time, which was when I was in primary school, I enjoyed visiting him. Kids take pleasure in weird stuff, but I guess there's a certain comfort in bonding through "difficult times". But, when my grandmother was on the verge of passing away, my family came here everyday, and it was sad because everyone was sad. We would visit her, and then head over for meals in the nearby malls and stuff. I would watch how sad my brother was and wondered why I wasn't as sad. By now, I've realised that people feel emotions at different timings.
This is also a place where Artika, Man Kit, and I came to for some reason. I don't remember. I only remember it was a pretty good day.
There was once when I came here shopping for props for 'Scrum!'.
There was also once when I got pretty depressed and my parents brought me out to breathe the fresh air. Jeanette happened to be working here at that time and I came over for a job interview. It was a pretty bleak period of time. Novena is a rather sad place. That's what draws me sometimes.
Newton
After poly ended, everyone was trying to find jobs. I had a year's break before army, so I wanted to do production-related stuff. Joey suddenly had a PA job for The Amazing Race, which was coming over to Singapore, so a number of us went over for the "interview", which was in some hotel at Newton. I was pretty excited when they asked me to go over for a "job briefing", which just turned out to be a small talk session with one of the producers, who decided he didn't need my help after all. It was a disappointment, but I guess it doesn't even matter anymore.
I also remember coming to the same hotel for the premiere of 'Scrum!' and being kind of impressed with the first episode because when I read it on the script, it felt really different.
Orchard
One of the first times I've been to Orchard, I came with my siblings and cousin, Ping Cheng. He was pretty well-versed with the place, especially compared to stay-at-homers like me. It was a day after we went to Sentosa, and it was one of the best days of my life at that point, just sitting by the fountains outside Ngee Ann City and taking photos.
Years later, at the same place, I paid $30 to participate in a green event which I thought was free. When they asked for the participation fee, I couldn't say no, because I was a yes-man. I was so angry at myself, and I projected that anger at everyone else.
Somerset
During secondary school, there would be many Christians who would try to convince their classmates to go to church with them in the weekends. I went with this guy called Kelvin, and it wasn't what I expected. The people there tried to psycho me to join their group, believe in God, and pray with them every morning. Being the passive guy that I was, I just went along until the next morning, during my first praying session, I took the courage to say I didn't want to do it. It is not difficult, but it was. Oh, by the way, the church was in Somerset. That's why I mentioned it.
Dhoby Ghaut
At the same period of time as my first paragraph under 'Orchard', my cousin introduced my siblings and me to this place called 'Just Acia', which sold decent food and free flow of ice cream and was located in Dhoby Ghaut.
Maybe the more prominent memories include coming here during Christmas with my family to look at the Christmas lights, as well as one period of time when my brother was getting his first MP3 player, which kept spoiling. I was really young, so I don't remember much, but leaving the usual places (Bishan, Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh) was always a good experience.
I guess that's about it. I would probably not write about any other stations because it's kind of tedious. The memories I had in the areas nearer to Bishan were more prominent.
Labels: places, reliving those days
Lighting Lanterns
Stefanie, CX, and me (left to right)
Mid-Autumn Festival is one of my favourite festivals in Singapore, not because of its cultural significance here or what, but really because of the visual pleasure in lighting up lanterns. It's kind of funny how I love the idea of lighting up lanterns, yet I only remember having ever done it thrice, if you count that time when my friends and I lit one up for only a few minutes and the other time when I was in primary one and I "lit up" the kid's electronic version.
I just did a quick search on this festival. It's really about thanksgiving for harvest and stuff, but it's also a time for gathering. To me, celebrations are sometimes excuses to bring together friends and families to have a good time. The whole idea of yielding more wheat or whatever has no direct implications on us but it's just a nice thing to celebrate.
So yesterday morning was a bad day because of a lot of shit in NS which resulted in me having to do seven extra duties. I shall maybe elaborate on it in a future post in a 'Shit We Go Through in NS' post or something. Fortunately, Stefanie, CX, and I (some of my poly friends) had planned to go for a walk with lanterns in advance (to accommodate to my time), and we stuck to it despite me being the last-minute planner that I am.
Met up with Stefanie first in Vivo, near where she worked for that day, because CX was late, and just walked around Candy Empire until he reached. Had dinner at Fish and Co., which reminds me that I have a now-expired voucher for that place that I wanted to use but couldn't because it is a weekday voucher. I should've given it to someone. For once, tried something that isn't fish and chips. We kind of splurged, or at least I did, with the soup and drink and calamari which added up to quite a lot of money, especially for me now, who just spent $330 on half a PS4 (might elaborate on it next time) and $2427 on a new Macbook Pro (because my previous one is on the brink of death).
After dinner, we headed to Labrador Park, which I'd been wanting to go to again ever since Scrum! and that CMPA video that we did; I wanted to go for a reason apart from filming. I'd never went there by public transport/foot before, so it took a bit of navigation before we managed to get to...
Labrador Nature Reserve.
It's a nice place though, with nice lighting, pillars, lamp posts (our CMPA was filmed here because our main characters were lamp posts), quietness, and a beautiful eeriness. Stefanie was freaked out when we walked pass the soldiers' bunkers from WWII.
While we were lost and walking around trying to find "that place that I remembered it as", we were having an insightful conversation revolving around personality tests that relied on our imaginations. So there were questions like "imagine you're walking towards the sea" or "imagine you're walking with someone else and you're lost", and we would be like "we are lost" or "we are walking towards the sea" or something.
I like these personality tests. Many of them are pretty accurate and introspective, despite feeling constantly judged at by them. Apparently, I am needy and materialistic. But one of the tests which I found really interesting was one which asked us to imagine an old, familiar room, to which I visualised a rather empty one. It was meant to represent your impression of your childhood but I couldn't remember that well.
Back to Labrador Nature Reserve, Stefanie refused to light up the lanterns although the darkness and emptiness there was perfect. We kept walking until we finally got to Labrador Park, which I recognised.
It's nice. I enjoyed the whole thing even though it wasn't exciting or whatever. Us being us, we had to spend a lot of time taking photos for instagram, and coming up with captions which we didn't use in the end.
That night, I had really interesting, wondrous dreams where I travelled around the world, made all sorts of friends, learned so much about myself, participated in some festivals, worked on different things, and caught some really beautiful sights involving obstacle courses, stars, the moon, sunrise, and a whole landscape of houses from atop the hill.
Labels: personality, places, things that happened
July 2015 (+1 day)
In chronological order:
Started the Unit Induction Programme
Nothing worth elaborating about. Just briefings, lessons, and stuff.
Visited the ArtScience Museum
Met up with the usual people and went for two exhibitions: The Deep and Dreamworks Exhibition. The former is about the underwater life while the latter is pretty self-explanatory. On that day, I had to book in again later that night for guard duty the following day, unfortunately. After the exhibition, we went to Telok Ayer to have Korean dinner. I'm not at all into Korean food but I guess I liked the kimchi chicken enough.
Went for a course in Clementi Camp
It was a relatively relaxing week, but naturally, it got ruined with the bad news which came in the form of our guard duty schedule.
"Trespassed" an abandoned mansion
It technically still belonged to some royal family in Johor, but many Singaporeans just went in to take pictures and marvel at how cool the place is. Istana Woodneuk is located in a patch of forested land beside the Botanic Gardens. It was rusty, vegetated, polluted, broken apart, and vandalised. That is one of the values of this place now. I kind of got attacked by a hornet. It poked my forehead but somehow it didn't sting me. Lucky for me.
Me being me, I took a few pretentious photos and we climbed to the roof and Elijah walked on top of walls, which I tried but went into panic mode and gave up. It was a mini adventure.
Revamped our company in camp
Did some painting, a lot of shifting, arranging, carrying, and stuff. Of course, also did guard duty again.
Went for an overseas university exhibition
On this day, I realised that I absolutely have no proper reason to attend university anymore, since I'm sure of what I want in life, and university plays no part in it.
Stayed over at Wei Jian's house
This would most likely be the last time we hang out before he fly to Brunei for a year. On that day itself, I got dismissed from camp late, so by the time I headed over, it was close to midnight. We watched Dark Water, which is actually a pretty good horror film. Usually, I don't enjoy horror shows for their story, but this was pretty okay, because it was more than a 'this house is haunted but my husband doesn't believe it' plot. I fell asleep as they played Fifa after that, and then woke up again when they started to play Fatal Frame, which is a horror PS2 game. It was simple but good time spent.
Hanged out in general
There's not really a need to elaborate.
Attended an exercise involving several countries
Went to PLC to attend this exercise, since we were done revamping what we could revamp in camp. Of course, also did guard duty again.
Met up with Man Kit
Went to buy something with him at Chinatown. Talking to him reminded me of how ignorant I was about the army and I would rather continue being ignorant and not be in here but let's persevere for another 13 months.
Celebrated Zi Wei's birthday in his party
Birthdays are always a reason to get together, and our dear gay boy has turned 21. It was nice, meeting up with the DTVM people again, witnessing Joey and Hira being ridiculously protective of Nam Nam, talking about holes, and trying (once again) to walk really slowly so that everyone else could catch up but failing anyway. In the party itself, it was a lot of alcohol, though we didn't drink much at all, and Cards Against Humanity. 'Yeast' is officially the funniest answer to me, and everyone now thinks I'm some sick dude who enjoys putting 'children on leashes'. Didn't get to hang much with Zi Wei himself, though, because there was so many people.
That's it for the month (+1 day). I guess this month was pretty good, but I still wish this month (and every other month) could've been a lot more joyful. There's so much to be grateful for this month. I should be.
Labels: dtvm, future, mehmeh, places, things that happened
Red Line Memories (part 1)
Singapore MRT's Red Line
Living in Bishan, The Red Line in the MRT is suppose to be one of the things I am most familiar with about living in my country because Singapore is only so small and these places are quite close to my home. So, I've thought it would be a good idea to reminisce a little on my earlier, more prominent memories I have on each station. Of course, I'm not going to talk about all of them because that will be way too much, so I shall just go from Khatib to Dhoby Ghaut.
Khatib
I never had a reason to go to Khatib before but now it's one of the places I frequent the most. But let's not talk about that because that isn't really memories. Let's talk about that one time my friend, Afiq, and I went for a jog, at Khatib of all places even though it was kind of in the middle of nowhere for us.
Even though the stadium we were going to was walking distance from Khatib, he'd tricked me to meeting him at Yishun Station instead just so that he could take a bus to Yishun and then we had to then take a bus to Khatib. See, I remember and I hold this grudge and I will hold it forever. Anyhow, it was the first time I'd been to Khatib. That's kind of the point.
Yio Chu Kang
I had some pretty good memories of this place and one pretty annoying one. I shall not talk about the annoying one because that will risk offending a certain person who probably already forgot how he had offended me. Grudges grudges.
The first good memory is coming to YCK stadium for Guang Yang's sports day. It was a good memory because I was the anti-social guy in class when I was in secondary one but I made friends and I had a lot of fun waiting for sports day to start with my new friends. It's kind of interesting to think about it now.
Another good memory is going to one of my poly classmate, Chuan Ying's, house to celebrate her birthday. I believe that was the first few times we all hung out and it was surprisingly okay. It was even quite fun. I still remember how we were stuck inside the confines of the condo because Chuan Ying wasn't there yet to help us tap out when we were about to leave, so a few of my classmates just decided to climb over the fence.
This place is also where Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) is, and that is where a bunch of secondary school classmates and I had our Advanced Elective Module for our Food & Nutrition class. It was a good memory as well, just basking in the polytechnic atmosphere even though we were secondary school kids, being impressed with the fact that there's a Mac Donald's inside a school, not having to report to our own school and have morning assembly, and so on.
NYP was also a very prominent venue for the Scrum! shoot that I was involved in for my internship. It was the place where I started working in a production team. I still remember my first day as a PA, and my colleague, Pearlyn, was teaching me literally everything. She even taught me how to fold plastic bags into triangles because I didn't know how to.
Ang Mo Kio
There are way too much stuff to remember about this place: Hanging out with Man Kit and co, waiting for him for 30 minutes to one hour right below his house just for him to change his clothes (-_-), practicing playing certain arcade games with my siblings just so we could prove to our cousin he wasn't better than us, eating a lot of dinners with my family, working in NTUC, and so on.
What I really want to talk about is a memory I have when I was a kid. It's really fuzzy, but I remember two particular things. The first one is: As a kid, I was really bored of walking around and looking at things, and I kept asking my dad when we would be going home. Obviously, my brother didn't want to go home so quickly, so we had to compromise. I was so excited to return home to play a Rush Hour-esque toy that my parents bought for me. There was another time when I was angry (I was always angry) because my parents bought something for my brother because he wanted it, and there was nothing that I really wanted but I insisted that my parents get me something as well just to be fair. They refused, because it didn't make sense, so I threw a book from Popular across the aisle, in front of a shop assistant. My parents apologised to her and scolded me, but she said it was all right. With pride, I told my parents, "Even she said it was okay!"
Ang Mo Kio also housed my favourite Fish and Chips of all time. No other Fish and Chips that I've ate ever since it closed tasted as good. I loved it because it was nicely fried, there was always a layer of skin under the crisp, the tartar sauce was the best, there was always fruit salad, and it was presented on a white piece of paper on a tray instead of the usual plate. Although sometimes I pretend that I'll one day find Fish and Chips that is as good as this one, I know that it's never going to happen because the reason why it tasted so good is probably the context in which I ate it. Maybe it wasn't that good, but how I remember it, it cannot be rivalled.
Bishan
I live here. My secondary school was here. I can create an entire blog just to document my life in this place. But, let me just talk about a specific group of memories, involving someone I would consider my best friend, except that we do not consider each other best friends anymore because we've agreed that it's kind of weird to deem someone as the "best".
Jt and I used to hang out here a lot more, just chatting. We became friends when we were in secondary two, and we went to Japan together. We could chat for hours in the bus, we chatted for hours in the classroom, and even after all that, we became friends again towards the end of secondary four and we could chat for more than five hours, none stop, over bubble tea. I don't know how we could chat for so long, so often, we we did and we do. We'd named hangout spots: The cockroach place, the “还有两个” (still have two more) NTUC, the "hehehe girl" playground, and so on. It's kind of interesting. Some of them were inside jokes which would not be funny if I describe them, so I shall not try.
Fun fact: Before Bishan Park got a complete makeover, I never visited it although I lived so near. After its makeover, my parents had not visited it, even till now.
Bishan Park. This park itself holds so many good memories, but let's leave it for some other day. For that purpose, I have created a new tag in this blog, 'Places'.
Braddell
This post is getting really long, so I'll just stop at Braddell and continue next time. Before I met my friend, Guang Yi, I never had a reason to go to Braddell, because it's a very neighburhood place. But now, his house became one of our more common hangout spots. I remember the first time I came, it was to study with a bunch of Guang Yang friends, including Melvin, Syahindah, Ru Wen, Wai Min, and some others I cannot remember.
His house was also the place I first met my friends' girlfriends. One of the days, we were going to have steamboat for some reason, and they had invited Wei Jian's (then) new girlfriend, Jessica, along. It didn't feel like a very distant memory, so it's kind of hard to imagine years had passed since they got together. We also first met Han Hui, Joshua's girlfriend, in Guang Yi's house. I remember that day quite clearly because it was the first time I vomited because I drank too much.
There are a lot more times to remember about, but if I'm really going to do that, I would be writing about my entire life, which will be way too boring. I hope this post had not bored you, though.
Labels: places, reliving those days