Hi! First thing’s first, I made a TRAVEL-LOG page!

Actually I’ve been wanting to do this up my blog for aaaaages, but I always felt quite lame that I’ve only been around South East Asia mostly. -_- Damn lame for a self-proclaimed travel-junkie.
But now that my big fat Europe trip is coming up in July! I’m thinking ok lah can do it now :D kind of like an introduction for what’s to come


[YESSSS IKNORIGHT, EUROPE IS REALLY HAPPENING. Will talk more on this later, but now let me talk about the travel-log please. It took me quite some time to do this up okay! Digging back into old blogposts, and even older picture-folders from many years ago in my hard drive. But now it’s (somewhat) done!]


I’ve categorized it 1) In chronological order, and 2) By location; and included all blogposts accordingly. Some are complete, detailed travel posts; some are kinda short and incoherent (because that’s who I am unfortunately), and some I completely forgot to blog about hehe.
Sorry for the inconsistency, will work on that in the future. But making this travel-log listy-type thing is good because now I see the blanks easily and may even want to go back and fill in the blanks. If there’s a backlogged post I’ll ever want to do, you’ll be sure it’s gonna be about travel!

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll probably already know that I’VE DONE IT!
I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a trip to Europe FINALLY.





As of right now, the only plans I have for the trip are:

• I’ll be backpacking through Europe 3 July – 14 Aug (6 weeks – if I don’t extend my stay)
• I’m going alone. Meeting friends along the way if I can in various countries
• I’m based in Amsterdam as it’s quite central – but I doubt I’ll be there for long. People tell me 3-4 days enough.
• I’ll be camping at Tomorrowland 26-30 July (*depends on whether can get tickets. Worldwide tickets are only released on 7 April, and Belgium tickets sold out so fast I even heard the server crashed! ***CONFIRMED!!! HAHAHAHAH)

Aaaaaaand, that’s it. That’s about all the solid plans I have! I’ll also want to hopefully hit one more music festival for bands, and more concerts along the way. I have a rough idea on which countries/towns I want to visit, but for how long and in what order, I don’t know. I’d like to keep things as flexible as I can.
But yea, other than that I’m just gonna wing it. Or as Petrina says, “rock n roll only!”



I have been talking about a Europe trip for YEARS. As far as I can remember I was 21-22 when I first seriously considered it. London and Paris fascinated the young me, and as I grew older, other cities took its place. But other than that, I knew close to nothing about that faraway continent. All I had was my deep desire to go there and find out.


And it wasn’t until I made it my 2012 New Year’s Resolution while standing on a chair with a video camera pointed at me as evidence (NYE activity with my friends in Langkawi hehehe), and said “2012 IS MY YEAR OF TRAVEL JUST YOU WAIT!”,
also thanks to some travel-type friends who’ve been sending spamming me with travel articles persistently to the point of “ENOUGH LAH, ENOUGH!” (but actually I’m damn grateful for it all haha),
That I finally mustered up the courage and booked the flight. No more excuses, whether it was studies, work, no travel-kaki, fear of whacking such a large chunk out of my bank account (it is HARD to save up that 10-20k okay!), I’ll just have to make it work. Make it happen. Everything will be okay in the end.

I can’t even begin to tell you how I’m feeling about all this.
It’s this insane rush of emotions, rampantly alternating between thrilling excitement, and sheer terror. Of course you’d be mad not to feel even a little bit scared! I feel like even my friends are scared FOR me! MY GOODNESS the reactions I’ve gotten so far,


When I first told my best friend in the car, he yelled, “HAARHH. ALONE!? …WHY???”

And another guy friend who said to me, “I don’t think I could do what you’re doing. Going alone like that.”
Which surprised me, because he studied in the UK and is surely more familiar with Europe than I am! I brought this up, and even then he still said he couldn’t.

And like 3 different people on 3 separate occasions said this exact same thing to me, “Wow, that’s so exciting! …by the way, have you watched Taken??”

-__-

And true enough on some days, the less reasonable side of my brain takes over,
“EH yala what if I get kidnapped! Sold into slavery! Or get mugged! My bag/money/ passport snatched! My entire fricking backpack stolen!!!” D: D: D:

But then on other days, like today, my logical and somewhat braver side screams back, “CYNTHIA you are a smart girl! You will be smart and cautious enough not to have all your sh*t stolen and die on the streets!”

I know these things always catch you offguarded, but at the very least I should not let it stand in the way of making my dream happen!


Telling the parents was especially scary. Considering I had already bought my flight ticket so I just had to drop the bomb on them.
We discussed some details, flight information, accommodation plans. I told them everything, and the flexibility I wanted to maintain. They told me to keep in touch as much as possible – and that was that.


I think they sort of know me by now. That this daughter of theirs is a little crazy, not exactly normal – but end of the day she’ll do whatever she puts her mind to, and she can take care of herself.

And in a way, it was a verification and a confidence boost, that Yes, I *can* do this. And I am!

And it’s going to be everything I dreamt of and more.




Currently listening to: Calvin Harris – Flashback ♫
(♫ genre: electro, dance)

[Read Part 1 if you missed it!]


HAAAIIII.

GUESS WHAT. MY CAMERA CAME BACK TO LIFEEE!!! :D :D :D


In Part 1, i mentioned briefly that my camera died when it got dropped into the river, :(

Well i had begun mourning its death when i got back to KL, when i decided to try fiddle-diddle with it again (hopelessly of course) then suddenly HELLOOO!! IM BAAACKKK!!! BLUFF YOU ONLYYY!!! :D


:DDD The screen turned on again bright and merrily and EVERYTHING WORKED. Every button, flash, zoom, everythinggg.
Which is WEIRD because the morning after i dropped it in the river, i turned it back on to test everything out. (Which was a stupid mistake on my part: Always dry off your electronics 100% before turning it back on, to get rid of any moisture inside. Don’t be so kan cheong spider like me.)
But anyway, at first it could turn on, but the buttons didn’t work. Couldn’t snap a picture at all, and other buttons functioned differently – i fiddle-diddled some more and and eventually the screen started fogging up. Lastly, the camera made a sad whirring sound, right before it completely kaput blacked out.
Nothing worked anymore after that, and it never turned on ever again. Surely it wasn’t unreasonable to call its time of death here.


BUT NOWWWWW. :D *hugs camera*

Damn crazy right! This is the same camera that survived 3 years of active usage; work, blog, events, travel etc, and finally got dropped in a frickin’ river – is now still working fine and dandy today.

CRAZY.

I can only thank my lucky stars! :) and pledge my allegiance to the Panasonic brand.

Ok now back to the post,


Took a day off from partying on the river and decided to visit the Blue Lagoon.

Petrina didn’t wanna come, said she’s seen quite a few pretty lakes and caves in Malaysia while shooting ‘The Rail World’ and ‘Without Boundaries’ with 8tv.
Besides, it really truly was hard to escape the tempting clutches of the river, i understand that ;) So it’s just me and Pirmin then! He’s one of the fellow travelers we met on the river.



Gonna be covered in soot again yay

Hello!

Dusty dusty road


Drove for about a half hour on this dirt road, and after avoiding (not very successfully) the many massive potholes left right centre, i genuinely wondered how our tuktuk did not break down halfway
Finally reached our destination, i gave Pirmin’s backpack a good whack and watched the brown puffs of smoke that escaped – - and we’re here!






I quickly understood the reason why it was called the Blue Lagoon, and not just Lagoon.
What a gorgeous piece of paradise hidden a slight way out of town! The water was literally turquoise. There’s a large tree with ropes hanging from the branches where you can leap off or swing into the water :)



Pirmin showing off with his somersaults haha


First order of business, jump into the water to wash away the dirt and grime all over us from the tuktuk ride.

Swam about for a bit, but we got out not long after. The water was so cold!

xx


There’s also a cave nearby up on a hill, so we decided to check that out.
Hiked up a long steep way up the hill, and you come to the entrance of the cave.

Make your way down and around that big rock and you’ll come to see the spectacular view.



MASSIVE!


Most people will only make it down to the Buddha statue (where the yellow hut thing is) and stop there, especially if they came unprepared, without torchlights and proper shoes.

But we saw some adventurous souls (see them tiny ant-people down there?) going further and deeper in, towards the pitch-black darkness… it was pretty terrifying, but also difficult not to follow them in. :)

Thank goodness Pirmin had a headlight in his backpack, (you can buy/rent flashlights & headlights at the bottom of the hill, but we were too lazy to hike back down and all the way up again. Eh, tiring ok!)

and I removed my flip-flops and went barefoot. Slow and steady, watching my step for sharp rocks and crazy holes-




Like this one.



The view up, from where the tiny ant-people were standing!











Took about an hour (and a full body workout) to get all the way in and around the cave, and back up to the entrance.

Hiked down the hill back to the Blue Lagoon, thank goodness there was a stall at the bottom of the hill selling food. We’ve had lunch before coming here, but the cave exploring surely worked up our appetites!

We found an empty deck with a mat under the trees, had a little picnic there, watching people frolic by the lagoon. :)



Sweet & sour fried meehoon with beef & veg <3 and coconut juice!

Our home sweet home every night :)


















Roomie (Dormie?) Martin!

Effectively I’ve only spent about 4 days in Vang Vieng (6 day trip to Laos, 2 days were spent traveling and transiting in Vientiane),
Such a short trip. Made me feel quite lame because everyone we met there were on a minimum 6-month adventure traveling the world. One guy I met said he’s been away from home for 1.5 years! And still counting! Crazy!

I didn’t expect I would, but I reallyyy miss those people I met there. Such warm, friendly, funny souls. It was really cool exchanging stories about home, different cultures and all, learning what’s going on halfway round the world. And after that go party up a storm.



Gift exchange from a traveler i met



Apart from parties, the INSANE stories and memories (some of which I can’t even tell you!), I think what I’ll take away most from this trip is the whole backpacking experience.
You know, meet other travelers, hang with them, exchange stories, etc. Not really having a clearly defined plan or itinerary.
Most of us are so used to sticking with our friends and schedules when going on holidays, that we miss out on a lot of other cool experiences.

And even though this trip was a short, relatively “small” backpacking experience for me, hopefully it’s just to get my feet wet before I embark on bigger ones


If you are young, have a hunger for travel and new experiences, and you have not tried backpacking yet, I strongly urge you to do so.
Challenge yourself. Take yourself out of your comfort zone and enter a different environment, where every day there’s something new and exciting to explore. It’s terrifying and exciting, intimidating and inspiring, all at the same time.

And there’s no better feeling than that.

xx




Currently listening to: Lana Del Rey – Lucky Ones ♫
(♫ genre: Hollywood Sadcore, slow sunday)

Hello!

Good lord am i rusty at writing/blogging or what! Even editing these pictures took me forever-and-a-half -_-”
Though i know it’s also partly ’cause as i go through the pictures for editing, i’m reliving the many (many) memories with a chuckle and a sigh.

Laos was truly an adventure for me, in so many ways.

Sometimes i can’t even believe so many things happened in a mere 4 days. Time flies fast when you’re having fun, and while that was true, it also felt like i was there for much longer! A week at least?

Anyway, i’m getting ahead of myself. :)


I went with Petrina, and even before the trip i sort of knew to expect adventure.

Little did we know, adventure struck us right from the get-go.

Our flight took us from KL to Vientiane, and we took a bus to our destination Vang Vieng.

We did some research beforehand: the bus would take about 4 hours, and cost around 60,000 kip (RM22), fully air-conditioned.
We bought our tickets and hopped on the bus – only to realize – there was no air-conditioning.





The bus began to move, and with our windows down, thank god the breeze was cool enough so we didn’t end up having to marinate in sweat.

However, as if fate saw this and said, “No! You asked for an adventure, i’ll give you an adventure!”,
the road all the way to VV had to be a fricking dirt road.

So for 4 straight hours, we had a constant wind of dust and grime blowing at our faces.
Brilliant.
I had to wipe off layers of brown dust that would settle on my sunnies every so often!
All we could do was laugh, sit back, and enjoy our 4 hour dirt-facial.




Petrina and I! ♥

Barren wasteland

Oh look there’s some greenery over there!

Oh wait, it’s gone.


At one point I remember staring down at the brown grass and dried shrubbery by the roadside, wondering if they were in fact brown and dead; or simply brown from being covered by all the dust and soot. Just as covered as our faces were halfway during the drive -_-



Pet’s makeshift solution hahahaha



The bus made a few stops, and peddlers came aboard selling food and drinks



Played hide n seek with a little Lao boy






More sellers swarming the bus at the stops

To be frank, there really isn’t much else to do in Vang Vieng, other than tubing and the parties.

Now before you shrug this off and think, Pfft, how shallow. Plus there’s more than enough rocking parties in KL!,

I TELL YOUUU, there’s really nothing like a party in Vang Vieng.

And if you think about it, coming from me… that’s saying something.


All well and good too, ‘cos honestly i think i’ve seen my fair share of temples, museums, and cultural stuff all around South East Asia! So this little ‘surprise’ in Laos was such a nice change of pace ;)





The main attraction here (whether or not partying is your cup of tea) is tubing.

Sit in a tube, float down the river, stop by the many (many) bars along the river,
float – stop – float – stop-
Or just keep floating on and on… down the river, with the lush green scenery around you… super chill.

You’re welcomed aboard to every bar with a free shot of local whiskey.


We intended to tube all the way down the river, making a few stops along the way for a drink or two,
But as with most of our plans that didn’t turn out,
We stopped at the first bar, had a couple of shots, moved onto the second bar – and ended up staying there the entire freaking day.

The distance that we actually tubed, i think we can swim lor. Oops. Quite wasted, but whatever. :)






Robert (from Sweden)



Alex & Mike (Germany & Chicago)


Met a whole bunch of people there, who are nothing short of awesome :)
Not sure if it was coincidence, most of them were staying at the same guesthouse as ours!



Pirmin (Holland) being cheeky at the bottom haha



Martin, Michelle, Tanya (all from Holland), Alex :)



Beer Alco pong


There’s dancing and singing and drinking games galore :)
If you want to cool off (or splash yourself sober), go on and jump in the river! There’s swings and slides and bases you can jump off ;) insane amounts of fun.

At one point my camera even dropped in the water for a bit – rendering it a gone case.

I remember not even feeling too upset about it, plainly because i was just feeling too happy and having so much fun! Imagine that.

Boys vs Girls!

Even though shots and buckets are the widely popular choice of poison around here,
I like to have my fav Malibu Pineapple in between – mostly to give my tastebuds a break

I always look out for my favourite bartender, this little lady.
My first cup i purchased, i asked to “tambah alco”, i expected the usual tiny slither of a pour from the Malibu bottle,
but instead she brought out a shot-glass and filled it up – and poured it entirely into my already full cup. THANKS KAKAK.

She did this exact same thing every time i came back for another cup, with a knowing smile How to not have fun like that seriously?!






with Yenete!
We call her ‘Finland’, that’s where she’s from (duh), but mostly cos we can’t pronounce her name right -_- And that’s probably the wrong spelling too oops


Do you realize that there’s hardly any Asians around? Other than the locals.
No really, I made an effort to look out for them, but there were close to none! It’s so bizarre!

Then I saw ONE and I got so excited I had to take a picture with him!



Hi BikiniChong! From Korea :)









Alex’ tattoo. Fo real.



Derp faces hee hee

Someone asked me about the rumours of the dangers of tubing in Vang Vieng. That in fact people have died in accidents and stuff.
Apparently they are true, i’ve read articles on those accounts. But what i think is, just be responsible. Don’t simply go jumping off into waters where not many people are around, or if you feel you’ve drank past your limit. If you’re not a good swimmer, jangan cari pasal.

Basic responsible stuff la. Just be wary and you’ll be fine :) Have your friend watch your back, and vice versa.

With every free shot, they tie a piece of coloured string around your wrist/ankle.

…Don’t judge me. I know my limits.


:) Part 2 coming soon. xx

Part 2: Blue Lagoon & Cave




Currently listening to: Lana Del Rey – Blue Jeans ♫
(♫ genre: Hollywood Sadcore, slow sunday)

(I had a hard time trying to figure out what genre her music is, so i googled it and found that she herself calls it ‘Hollywood Sadcore’. It makes complete sense.)
(p/s: I am *absolutely* head over heels in love with her music right now. Totally eating my words when i said i didn’t like it at first. Nomnomnom.)

Hello! It’s Friday night and my nose is stuck. (i love how i can open with a line like that, just ’cause i can :D)
So my sinus is acting up which is making me lazy to go out tonight, plus i think im still all partied out from New Years. Been feeling pretty homey lately, and i really wanna blog about New Years in Langkawi soon (which was frakking awesome btw), and SOON TOO so i don’t forget the good stories Am currently waiting on Loong to post up his batch of pictures ’cause his are pretty sweet. Or i might just blog first and add his pictures in later. i dunno.


Despite my slower blog updates, lately im still getting emails from readers & AOF customers, with an array of subjects from travel tips to where-i-got-that-dress-from, or just a simple hello. A more recent one requesting to buy some of the outfits ive worn on my blog it’s all very nice, and i always love hearing back from the readers. Which is why tonight im sitting at my laptop, hot chamomile tea by my side, sniffing minyak cap kapak in between sentences (sinus is no fun guys T_T),
wanting to say hello! What’s up and howdy do :) My recent posts have been very picture-heavy, and make no mistake this will probably be the trend you’ll see around here nowadays. But once in a while, when im up for it, i’ll pop in for a little word-vomitty catch-up sesh.

xx


Another email i got this week was a kitten-up-for-adoption one.

It was one of those mundane weekdays where nothing really spectacular happened, then that night i received that email with a picture attached to it – and it IMMEDIATELY lit up my day



YAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHH CUTECUTECUTECUTECUETUCUTCETUC


I’m always on the lookout for these kitty adoption listings ’cause i REALLY REALLY WANT ONE LAAA. And this isn’t like an impulse thing, ive thought about getting one for months now! What’s basically holding me back, is my immense fear of accidentally killing the little bugger. I believe this stems from the fact that ive never had a pet in my house, EVER. And my parents’ relentless disapproval towards any of us getting a pet, since young; one infamous argument i had with my mum (at roughly age 9 or so) that caused me to storm off petulantly, “Mummy you wait, when i grow up im gonna open a ZOO!”


And with that, my childhood dreams of owning my own zoo shall start with a single kitty :) Back to my email, i quickly began googling on how to care for a cat. Doesn’t sound too difficult, they seem to be fairly low-maintenance… but i don’t know, i’ve still got a lot of What-If’s flying around in my head, where to keep it, in my room (messy) or the house (massive for a kitten, can’t keep an eye on it?), and if in my room, will it poop everywhere and make my room SMELL like a zoo -_-

I began asking friends all my questions too. Some were helpful, while others…

Doesn’t exactly help either when Murni, Jezmine, Gwen, Jenhan, Lim & many others are posting pictures of their precious kittens on Instagram and everywhere all the time, calling upon my #crazycatlady instincts to join them soon… hehe.

I dunno. Well that’s what’s been occupying my mind lately, no promises that i will in fact get one soon, but no promises that i won’t either… Consider this fair warning so if i do finally decide to do it, you won’t be too surprised!


Oh and any tips for me on how to care for cats, or even IF i should get one; would be most helpful :) and anymore cat adoption listings too, send em my way!
Lastly, if anyone is interested in adopting the 2 cats in the picture above, let me know and i’ll send you the contact person to call. That’s if i haven’t decided to adopt them myself yet ;)

okdezzallnowbai!




Currently listening to: U2 – Sweetest Thing ♫
(♫ genre: alternative)