SCARED + PANIC + FEAR = BREATHTAKING EXPERIENCE

Day1 (30 January 2010). I’ll cut short the 1st half of the day and hop to the best part.

This is the my THIRD (3rd, TIGA or 三) trip to Chiang Mai and yes I do get the strange look or should I say the wondering looks from people on why need I go so many a time. Ahhh……. Chiang Mai to me is the nearest place for “extreme” (to me only lar) adventure/activities that I can afford and the rest of the packages are cheap too (ie hotel, food, transportation and not to forget Air Asia cheap flight AND 2.5 hours journey). I haven’t blogged anything about my first 2 trips here and yet am jumping queue…. EXCITED!

The day started as usual lar, LCCT at 4:50 MORNING, flight delayed 20mins (no aircon wor), reached Chiang Mai at 9ish. Luckily the room is ready, we booked this tiny cute little boutique hotel called The Small Hotel just because the pics on the website looks cool. Oh well! They met my expectation for that the front desk is super lovely and YES they speak good English (no worries! FREE WIFI TOO, thus me blogging)

Upon dumping our stuff (and eaten out maggie mee for “brunch”) we head straight to Arcade bus terminal to purchase tomorrow’s tix to Sukhothai, then we thought (or more like I thought lar) of taking my sis to Bor Sang umbrella making cottage industry village but somehow got the wrong indication/direction from the hotel folks, perhaps the way I says it lead them to understood wrongly. Oh well! We did get lost on foot near the hotel area and manage to find the route back to hotel. Being too tired (not sleeping a wink) and thirsty we decided to go to the Tea Garden right next to our cute little hotel.

GOODNESS! The décor was fabulous… and by know you know me right!?!?? SNAPPY SNAP… after ordering my lemongrass+herbal tea, sis’s ginger+cinnamon+herbal tea and YUM YUM banana split.

After all the drinks and the yummy ice-cream we took a short R&R in our room and waited till 4pm to meet up with our ADVENTURE GUY!

He was early by 5 mins (impressive), we make quickly make payment at the hotel reception and board his van. It was the loooooongest 30mins ride as I was worried he gonna take us “somewhere” else…. Yeah! I have big problem with being paranoid. And no, he is an honest man! Took us to the destination. Phew to me!!!

You’ll be wondering by now; what lar the thing she is soooo kan cheong-ly wanted to “story” everyone right. Wellllllll……. This is what I have booked for my sis & I in our 24hr stay in Chiang Mai…..

MICROLIGHT AIRCRAFT RIDE.

Need not say more… and the best part, I got to ride it during SUNSET! A little info for all…. (since I love it so much, it’s my “duty” to share :D )

Sky Adventures Chiang Mai
Fly daily:
8 - 11am and 4 - 6pm

Flight Route:
15 min for 1,900 baht, 30 min for 2,900 baht
(Passenger Max. Weight 110kg).

Insurance Cover
Transportation round trip (Min.2 Persons)
Microlight flight Certificate
Drinking water

Reminded me of Nelly Furtado’s song…

I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away
I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is

Anyone of you tried this? Or better, skydiving?

Hyperlink credits : Wikipedia, The Small Hotel,Chiang Mai Sky Adventure, Air Asia

Sawatdee kha Thailand

Another trip… YEAY! But loads of worries, my quarter 1 closing and I wont be in to do funding adjustment next Tuesday & Wednesday…. Bad bad BAD!

Oh well! I need my break, my Q1 is already bas as I expected earlier since it is such a short quarter… no diff lor I guess.

This time, my little short trip will be kinda interesting as I will be going to Chiang Mai, on 2nd day proceed to Sukhothai (haven’t figure out how to get there as yet ie bus or train) then the following day will head to Bangkok, then followed by Pattaya then back to Bangkok before heading home. Andrea has a confcall with her regional office (or is it worldwide) and a wedding to attend thus FFK-ing us…ehheheh (won’t exactly call FFK since she pre-empted much earlier).

Am now at KL LCCT airport waiting for my 6:55am flight, meaning I will reach there super duper early… with me half asleep and I doubt our room is ready and available…sigh…. The original flight supposedly 10:20am but the brought forward to 6:55am, imagine my shock!

OK! I need to board now, till tonight….

SAWATDEE KHA

Hyperlink credits : LCCT, Wikipedia

So FULL of MESELF and I DON'T CARE

Am soooo excited today, well…. Actually more like towards the end of work day.

You see... I received this calendar thingy, you know lar; every year we either give away calendars or receive them. And this time no different lor, so I thought no biggie lar right… calendar only maah, open and shout to the floor folks and ask who wants an extra calendar - since I ALREADY have one ie my company's calendar (very die hard fan of “the co”, yeah right LILY!). As usual, I opened it quickly and just about then I realized that it might not be mine, I mean; just because someone passed it to me doesn't necessarily mean it's mine roight?! It CAN be for the girl who sits beside me OR for me to pass it to so-and-so roight? I stopped half way to double check with the giver. Yup! Mine awighty! I opened and said to...

MEself : “Besarnye… Bagi kat orang ler” (So huge, gonna give away to someone else)
RY : (his cubicle next to mine and he received one as well) “They always do personalized calendar… every year"
MEself : (I was like) “What personalized?!”
RY : “Your name all over the pages / month, check out”
MEself : “OMG! MY NAME, HERE and HERE and HERE at EVERY MONTH…."

BEYOND ECSTATIC!

I told FT (who sits behind me) that am soooo gonna take the pics and post it on my blog! (And I did it okay!)

The thing is... that I have always wanted to get one of this calendar. Back when I was in my previous department; they did this kinda thingy as well BUT only to selected people (obviously am not one of them lar - kucimayung maaa) and also by then I have moved to my current department - melepas lar, memang tak ada can…. SOOOOooo…. You can imagine my excitement level when I saw my name EVERYWHERE? FINALLY!!!! YEAY!

100% CUTENESS


RY claimed that he have more balls (his name was longer ofcos) in April than moi

RY also claimed that he have more land mass (all these out of spike I think, funny guy!)

RY's have ofcos more fireworks lar....

Yup! You guessed it - MORE STAMPS

BIGGER APPLE - WIDER!


Last but not least.....BIGGER CHIPS

Am so FULLLLLL of MESELF! But who cares!
.
.
.
Soo full of LILIES!

Taipa Tulip in Macau

Day 5 (27 December 2009). In canto sounds like - a lot (taipa 很多) of Tulips.

Haven’t really been in my best/top form, very busy and very tired, very duh; maybe the weather not agreeing with me or perhaps PMS. Thus, effected my mood to blog despite that I have 1001 things in my mind to pen down, YET just couldn’t find the “reason” to start…sigh… (more of excuses not too!) bad sign ie LAZY MOOD COMING!

HOWEVER, I shall try to blog; since normally my so called “MOOD” tend to pick up and strangely it can influence me mood to be perkier and funnier…ahhaha…. (fake laugh).

Ah! I think I know why! The last day of this trip has nothing much to “brag” about, first of all, am totally CLUELESS on the public transport. Secondly, the locals can’t speak English much…. Even road sign is in Portugese and it doesn’t help as the locals (mostly) only know the road name in Chinese - massive chicken & duck talk. And thirdly, RAIN! And I am not talking about the Korean HUNK cum singer cum actor cum my boyfriend (dream on Lily)…. OK! OK! Really check! But he is yummy right! RIGHT! RIGHT!

Let’s start…. Hemmm…. It started with me splitting with the rest (8 of my relatives) as the van unable to fit all of us in and also the fact that I’ve booked a different flight time (they're going straight to the airport after their sightseeing). Oh! By the way, the driver can’t speak a word of English, am very worried for my cousins… But I guess I need to trust them to be able to manage the situation, after all they all traveled before. This should be fun maah... After everything settled, I “bye-bye”ed them and waited for the public transport to Taipa Island, we thought we cover the furthest one first and move slowly to those within the city area.

The hotel reception gave us the direction on how about to take the public bus and off we go… WHY CAN’T THEY HAVE A HOHO (Hop-on Hop-off) sigh…. Life could have been much easier (Enough complaining Lily!). We head to Taipa House Museum, I honestly didn’t expect much… but I was surprise; for one, they have nice looking GREEN HOUSES and TULIPSSSSS! We spent a loooooooong time there, took pics like nobody's business ie like a monkey receiving a torchlight (it’s a Malay simile ie the monkey will keep using the torchlight even though in broad daylight).

The bus journey was 30 mins long, Taipa is basically totally another island from Macau which I thought kinda interesting as I always thought that Macau consist of ONE ISLAND ONLY. Ignorant!

We alight upon reaching our stop, aimlessly looking for the direction and finally saw it up on a shop. We walked up the steps and saw this small lane which reminded me of Granada (missed Spain so much).

Then we stumbled into Carmo Church and Library, it’s looks and feels old and ancient and somewhat European…. Hemm….. And we thought this can’t be it, they said GREEN maa…. Took few pics and search for my green houses, then that’s when I realized my sis was no where to be found, PANIC! Walked everywhere in the compound, tried calling, did not pick up… shucks! WHERE?!??!?! Then I heard noises below far far far away, I followed it, that’s when I saw my GREEN HOUSES and she is already there. ARGH…. Upset!

A little bit about this Taipa Houses Museum, basically it was built in 1921, and apparently it had been the residences for high superiors and Macanese families. And in the 80's, the Tourist Department of Macau bought and recovered them. An then, in late 90's, the government decided to fully remodel them, upon recognizing its important architectural value thus transforming them into museums and renaming the houses as "Macanese House", "House of the Islands", "House of the Portugal Regions", "Exhibition Gallery" and "House for Reception".

One thing for sure, the area was CROWDED, might be due to the holiday season. Tried my best to take pics of the houses…. Cause later I definitely focusing on the TULIP!

I need not say much here lar… it’s Tulip all the way……..

And more Tulip…

And even more…

Then it RAIN! YUP! We took the bus back to Macau Island and stopped at Grand Lisboa & Wynn but was disappointed obviously; I mean, after you have seen Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, the rest is almost nothing compared….

We walked to Senado Square as my sis wanted to buy a pair of jeans, and I was dead bored in Giordano, Bossini & Baleno…. And I decided to go off to the airport earlier so that we can rest(more like sleep) there (our flight was pushed 2 hours behind). Way tooo tired to walk.

Lily signing off - last trip 2009. (mood mood where are you?)

Hyperlink Credit : Wikipedia, Lonelyplanet, Kpop, Venetian Macau, Grand Lisboa, Wynn Macau, Macau Government Tourisme Board

Macau Magic - Cirque du Soleil

Day 4 (26 December 2009). It's a kind of magic.

I‘ve been sooooooo absolutely busy lately, I have to helped with the dept trip of 100pax, I have my personal end month trip to Chiang Mai to Bangkok to plan & book, 2 workshops to manage, 1 event to organise, quarter 2 funding to submit, budget to plan…. Ads to finalized…. Etc etc etc…. ARGH!!!! SUPER DUPER BUSY MONTH! And I sooo wanna blog to forget my work! I believe it’s called WORK LIVE BALANCE - of which is lacking! I even went to office on a Sunday and rushed back to attend my darling niece’s birthday. BUT BUT BUT the thing is…. I work better under pressure; unfortunately you die faster too….(so they say) sigh….. I need to take it slooooooowly. Breath in……… breath out…… Inhale….. Outhale (!!??!?!)…..heeehehe ops! Exhale I mean….
;p

Let’s trip blooooooog……

I went a bit dress-overboard for this… as usual I must look good for any photo session in every country, so much so that I can’t or should I won’t (DON’T) be repeating the same clothes I wore per country, not to mentioned those longer holidays; I make sure all colours planned, coordinate with the excursion, the site, the sky, the scenery etc etc etc…. HEY! I will even change my hair style - KID YOU NOT. Been preaching this to all my friends and my colleagues AND my friends fully agree and doing it too…. YUP! DRAMA QUEEN! (or some said CAMW***E, my nieces/nephews my be reading blog…. Aunt Lily need to watch out what she says in the blog) But seriously! I fork out a lot of money per trip (aaaaand before). I mean, I BETTER look GOOD right… I even have tips on this for people….. Haahahaha…. (really! After all, I AM not gonna go back yo THAT country JUST BECAUSE am not satisfied with the pics I’ve taken, I have no one to blame but myself for this mah… right!? Thus, solution = I better be prepared and be a drama queen - it’s for the better of the world… and MOI ofcos :p)

The main question is why is today abit different? Hemm….

1. We are going to Macau - totally different country
2. Taking ferry - different experience
3. Going to Venetian - definitely different ambience
4. Cirque du Soleil - different… HEY! need I say more!?!?

You heard it alwight! Am going to watch THE Cirque du Soleil (note the word “T.H.E” in CAPITAL!) the last time I watched this was in Las Vegas about 12-14 years back… Finally. Again. Now (targeting the one in Japan too this or next year). Excited! Excited! EXXXCITED! Watched the preview on my notebook many a times….looks great, am sure the live show will even be better. Very the kan cheong…
OK! Back to the storyline… ( I can reaaaally be long winded!) Wake up early, reached ferry terminal on time, but somehow the queue was EXCEPTIONALLY long, and we were called for boarding by the time we reach our turn at the immigration (sort of), apa lagi… run like make woman/girl/boy (imagine ALL 10 of us… screaming and shouting = PANDAMONIUM) luckily we’ve checked in our bigger luggage, else KANTOI punya. NO way am “seret-ing” my huge luggage for 300 mtr (seret = drag). Board the ferry, 5 min after that it depart Hong Kong… new journey awaits us…ceh wah…

Guess what? Some of my relative mabuk laut (seasick)…. Hence, they choose to take a nap, somehow lil’ Misha rugged (age 8) - no seasick… infact she was playing my sis’s Nintendo Lite. Way to go Mish! Uni can take you on trips again… anyway, the queue at the immigration was also looooooooong - peak period with the Christmas holiday, school holiday & new year holiday (what a time to pick a trip huh!). After queuing for 1 hour, we manage to get a van that can FIT ALL 10 of us, and off we go to the hotel… a real hotel this time (Macau Master Hotel = cheap, English speaking, friend, helpful, decent and near Senado Square) NOT hostel as like in Hong Kong. Heehehhee…. My cousin said, finally rasa macam orang kaya sikit….ahahhahah…. I kinda agree…. Oh well, we checked in and agreed to come down at 3pm sharp to hitch the free shuttle to Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. Yup! The KEY activity in Macau - Cirque du Soleil. We took a quick snack in our room which should reads it as Maggie Mee, roti with serunding and nasi him pit with sambal ikan bilis = YUMMY!

All came down on time, boarded the bus and off to our show. It was a 30 mins journey…. And you can see the mega structure of Venetian Macau Resort Hotel from afar…. Really breathtaking…. Inside was even more breathtaking…. It also took our heart, eyes, leg, hand, CAMERA away…. Word can’t describe….
How best can I show everyone…. I guess post as much pics as possible - so pleaseeeeee don’t be bored yah, just that it’s tooooooooo beautiful!

OK! Some pics of us human too against the nice building, canal and the indoor sky effect! Love it!

The funny thing is that everyone was excited about the canal and they want and must have a pic together gather with THE CANAL…..sigh… me included
:p

Anyone watches Korean movie or listens to Korean song? If you do, the reddish pics if “inspired” by 2pm - HEARTBEAT performance. SEEEEEE!!!! Everyone was surprise, shocked and amazed even flabbergasted with them. You know me… love the drama, it’s like a must have kinda thingy…. Else it felt incomplete! The kids as usual will corporate with my nonsense. YEAY TO KIDS!

This is my sis favourite - HELLO KITTY! She bought one shirt - I “Hello Kitty” Macau; she is a collector of I “heart” xxxx country. Was ecstatic to purchase her shirt and I bought one for her as well… Yup! That night she slept exceptionally well dreaming of Hello Kitty. Fatin! Say thank you to you sis!

Argh…. We need to rush to our Cirque du Soleil…. So busy taking pics we almost overlook at the time… shucks! By the way, did some googling Cirque du soleil means "Circus of the Sun". is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. Now that we all know, we feel smart huh.

Sorry no pics on this as we are not allowed to take any pics during the show, but we manage to take after and outside the show…. Kinda consoling lor… at least mah. About my nephew pic here…hemm…. We’ll let him explain himself…. I just thought it… cool & creative. I went to Macau Hard Rock Hotel to buy my collection of Hard Rock shirt and shot glass for Andrea and also a shirt for my cousin before go back to Macau island. Oh! A little info of which I too was not aware, Those big casino are located in Taipa island except for Grand Lisboa and Wynn and MGM.

After settling my sourvenirs, we took the bus back to hotel and decided to take night pics of the famous Ruins of St. Paul. the façade of what was originally the Cathedral of St. Paul, a 17th century Portuguese cathedral in Macau dedicated to Saint Paul the Apostle. The Ruins of St. Paul were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yeay! One more UNESCO site in my list.

OK! OK! OK! Before showing how it actually look like, we need to walk ie cut thru the Senado Square, it was Christmassy I must say with the Chinese lantern Santa Claus, all the lights with touches of Portugese old architecture…. Really different I must say.

One thing I like about Senado Square is the perspective path… somehow it look good in the pic or at least to me lar…

The excitement as we approach St. Paul ruins at night time…

Ta dah……. The ruins itself! I took EVERY ANGLE I can think of (which is only 1 so far)….. with my normal boring digital old auto camera… I guess this is the time you wish you have a DSLR; thus only showcasing 3. Oh! The ruins are only of this one flat piece meaning there nothing at the back of the wall…. What a sight neh…

It was approaching midnight… we're calling it a day… or a night? Hemm....

Tomorrow? It’s tulip season in Macau!

Credit Hyperlink : Wikipedia, Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel, Cirque du Soleil, Wynn Macau, Grand Lisboa Macau, Hard Rock Hotel Macau, UNESCO, Macau Master Hotel