Now living in London with a family as an au pair. Never crossed my mind I'd actually be doing this. It's slowly sinking in and I think I'm loving it! Not only I get to live so close to central London without having to pay rent, I also get a room to myself... nicer than the one back home...haha And the three boys... they're absolutely lovely! Max's such a grown-up for his age (just turned 13), the other night, he was arguing with his mates over which movie to watch on cable. Sam and Paris both opted for The 40-year-old Virgin [View Full Entry]

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Hello mum hello dad hello bro... the flight almost killed me... such a long haul !! but they kept feeding us....can never complain bout that! i didnt get enough sleep the night before... was really really tired but couldnt sleep on the flight to Doha... had to get drunk so i can take a nap... drank myself silly with 6 mini bottles of white wine... got quite pissed when i arrived in Doha, had a major headache and was pretty dehydrated... then only regreted having so much to drink... fell asleep on the bench during transit and didnt even realise it [View Full Entry]

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Thoroughly enjoyed the 4-day stay on Mabul Island and back-to-back diving in Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai islands....which I paid good money for....RM1200 for the whole package including accommodation, food, 9 dives, and boat transfer. Night dive was RM50 extra. Well, they say the package is actually considered cheap. We did a group booking and stayed at a backpackers lodge. It'd cost more than RM2000 if we were to stay at the resort where they have jacuzzis in some rooms (can already imagine myself just soaking in the jacuzzi all day and missing all the dives...) Every single dive in Sipad [View Full Entry]

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Semporna essentially means "perfect" in Malay. This tiny fishing town is about 5-6 hours south of Sandakan by bus. I find this place really intriguing as everyone seemed to stare at me even tho I'm a local...as in like M'sian. I was walking around town earlier and people were shouting for my attention, honking at me if they're in a car, or (the kids..) just following me around trying to peep into my camera. I feel more foreign here than I did in Thailand/Indochina. After wandering around the town for 15 min, I realised I've pretty much covered all the "must-sees". [View Full Entry]

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In order to get to Sipadan, I was supposed to fly to Tawau, the nearest town to Semporna. But being kiasu and all, I booked for a free AirAsia flight to Sandakan, had paid only RM40 for tax and whatnots. I wonder when AirAsia celebrate their 50th anniversary, will they be giving away 50 million free flights? With 3 days to spare before my diving trip, I had planned to spend 1/2 day in the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehab Centre and 2 days living in a homestay near Sukau in Lower Kinabatangan. Alas, everywhere around the Kinabatangan river was flooded due [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at 3am with an awful stomach discomfort. Started throwing up until there was nothing left in my GIT, couldnt puke anymore even tho I forced myself to. Then, the purging took over thru to the next morning (am still having diarrhoea even tho been back in M'sia for a week). I haven't been eating hawker food since I left Laos, so I pindowned the source to the probably contaminated spider I ate at a Phnom Penh market. But the onset for food poisoning is usually less than 6 hours, I only started having the symptoms after over 12 [View Full Entry]

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I woke up this morning with nausea. And I thought I was going to be in good health throughout this trip, but it had to happen...right at the very last moment. Had to make my way to the bus station and got on the 7am bus to Siem Reap. 1st half of the journey was alright coz I forced myself to sleep. Then, I was oversaturated with sleep and cudnt sleep anymore :( So began the puking marathon. It was horrible. Kinda reminded me of a lady on the same bus with me from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. She was [View Full Entry]

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There is something about the Cambodians dat really puzzles me. They don't seem to know how to prioritize things. For instance, I was at a restaurant in Sihanoukville and wanted to pay the bill. The staff was cleaning the ketchup bottles and he knew I was waiting to pay the bill. I had to stand there at the counter for over 5 minutes until he'd finished cleaning all the bottles, and to make matter worse, he went like "oh the bench is so dirty" and started cleaning the bench before serving me. I mean, this is just ridiculous!! Then, the morning [View Full Entry]

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Forget about me saying that the bus rides in Thailand and Laos were terrible. Nothing can beat the journey I took from southern Laos to the Cambodian border (crossing forest torched by bushfire!!), onward to Stung Treng-Kratie-Kampong Cham-Phnom Penh in 16 hours. I thought my spine was shattered by the bumps in the road. Then after spending 1 night in Phnom Penh, I had to continue early the next morning to the Sihanoukville at southern tip of Cambodia. It was one hell of a journey. Si-blablabla-ville as we call it, is a town surrounded by beaches that's sorta like phuket/samui in-the-makin [View Full Entry]

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The ride to Si Phan Don is the longest I've been on so far, it seemed to go forever. The annoying part was that the stupid bus stopped so often...everytime I wake up from a nap, we'd be at a stop for loo or food. I dont think I get memba myself on the bus when it was moving. We also had our CNY reunion dinner on the bus...banana chips for entree, main n dessert. Shared snacks with the locals as well, they didnt stop eating !! Si Phan Don is very village-like. And it kinda reminded myself of the Pulau [View Full Entry]

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