Tag: #indie30

It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!

I grew up on the tropical island of Borneo.

Correction, 2 percent of the tropical island of Borneo–right next to Lok-Kawi Beach and where I can see the magnificent Mt Kinabalu even when it’s cloudy.

I guess that’s where my nonchalance for nature comes from. Too much of a good thing makes it boring. I’ve always thought of myself as a city girl. Someone who prefers concrete jungles to rainforests, night lights to the stars (actually stars are really nice).

Since moving to Singapore for my studies and work, I began missing all the nature stuff that I thought I didn’t like. Whenever I go home for vacation, I would stare at the blue South China Sea while my parents drive. Continue reading “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!” →

How I learned to eat like a rabbit

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I hate eating raw vegetables. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up in a Chinese household where salads are not common.

I dislike the taste of raw leafy greens, eating it makes me feel like a goat. (Others would inject here: At least say a rabbit, not goat!)

It wasn’t until I was in Vietnam where they consumed pails of vegetable that I learned how to eat raw greens (half raw, would be the better term).

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At a pho restaurant, a metal pail of fresh greens await you. When you bowl of piping hot beef noodle soup comes, you pluck the leaves off and dunk it into your soup.

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I gingerly sniffed the darker greens. It smelled alright. A bit of the unnamed vegetable and I was hooked. Their veg has a slightly herby taste that goes so well with beef soup.

 

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The next time I ate another pho, I eagerly drowned my vegetable in the hot soup and slurped it along with my noodles. Yummy.

But the spell broke once I ended my trip. Back home, all greens uncooked taste yucks.

This post is part of BootssAll’s 30 Days of Indie Travel project. Day 8: Love Learning.

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The rest of my posts for the project can be found here.

Celebration by accident: Feast of Saint Eulalia, Barcelona

I was in Barcelona this February for a work trip. It was the very first time I was in Europe.

Before flying off, I read up on the festivals happening in the Spanish city. I was disappointed that the Feast of Saint Eulalia was on February 12 and that I would miss it by just one day.

I reached the city early in the morning. My hosts were still flying over so I had the chance to wander around the town.

Many shops were still closed and the weather was chilly. I walked to the tourist center and looked at the beautiful European buildings. 

On my way back to the hotel, I heard lively music and wondered what street musician was making such a racket.

I ran down the empty alley toward the music. To my delight, the citizens were having a parade. I didn’t miss the celebration after all!

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Lively trumpet and drums played throughout the parade. I stayed on, staring at the giant figures and the happy people.

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Here’s a snap of some guy escaping his giant whateverthatis

I left the parade in the alley and wandered off again. I was also lucky enough to catch the human tower mentioned in the guidebook.

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When my hosts finally arrived, the celebration had ended. *evil laugh*

 

This post is part of BootsnAll’s 30 Days of Indie Travel Project: Day 7: Celebrate.

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The rest of my posts for the project can be found here.

 

 

Gift of Fear, travel edition

Blog title taken from the title of a book that everyone should read: The Gift of Fear.

Travelling as a single woman takes guts.

Despite putting on a brave front telling people about my solo travels, I have to admit here that I feel panicky before every single trip.

“What if something bad happens??!” Worst case scenarios run through my head: my body floating in the Seine, found dead in my hostel room, etc–all sorts of scenarios from bad detective novels.

Despite all my paranoia, nothing really bad happened to me on my trips. *touch wood*

That said, there was a scary incident in Paris. It is scary on hindsight but (fortunately) I wasn’t that afraid then–more annoyed than scared.

Here’s a recount of the event (with edited paragraphing) from my Paris travel blogpost (a copy and paste of my e-mail to my friend):

No need to panic but some random guy threatened to kill me.

Was walking out of train station to where I live. Heard someone calling out from behind. Ignored (bcoz you never know who it is, and quite a few mad men around). Shout got louder as I walked away. I exited, thinking I was safe. At traffic lights, a China man (only reasonable term I can use now) said something loudly to me. I turned to him. He looked red in the face and smelled a bit drunk. He rambled on loudly in his dialect. I never opened my mouth but gave him a look that said: What the f do you want?

He ended his rambling, asking: You are China person (def not “overseas Chinese” in this case), aren’t you? I shook my head and looked away to behind him, holding on to my not-give-a-shit look.

Then he said: Next time you do this, I’LL KILL YOU.

He walked off.

While i feel frightened now, I’m glad I held on to my BITCH PLZ look.

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This was where the scary thing happened, in the evening with the sky slightly gray.
Credit: Google Map 

Additional information about the incident. It was late in the evening in summer but there was still some light. The tunnels in the Metro were winding. There was a cafe opposite the exit–but no one sitting outside to witness the incident.

As I said I was not afraid when it happened. It was in my instinct that the guy did not have a gun or a knife with him. It was also instinct that told me: Put up a brave front.

Moral of the story: Trust your instinct but bring pepper spray, just in case.

How would you have handled such a scenario?

This post is part of BootsnAll’s 30 Days of Indie Travel Project: Day 6: Fear.

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The rest of my posts for the project can be found here.

Accidental, musical Nantes

Before my trip to Paris, I was looking on the Web to see if Mozart l’Opera Rock was on while I was there. Unfortunately, the Paris shows were far from the dates I would visit the City of Lights.

A bit of background about the musical: I accidentally discovered the musical while on Youtube. The music video for L’Assasymphonie had all the mysteries of the sexy French. “Why does the bearded man look so tortured?!” I became obsessed about finding out more about the play.

Turns out, it’s a about Mozart’s life. I watched all the videos I could online and tried to memorize the lyrics.

Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the show would not be in Paris!

I looked through the list again and found that the nearest location that the show would play was in Nantes.

Before that, I never heard of the town. I googled and found out that it was about 2 hours on TGV from the capital. After thinking about it for somedays, I decided to spend two days of my already short week in France in Nantes, just for the musical.

I did not regret it.

 

The break away from the capital allowed me to see more of beautiful France, not just piss-scented Paris. On the TGV, I sped past field with rolls of hay and grazing fluffy sheeps. It made my heart swell with happiness.

The musical itself was lovely. My very first musical. (I’ve always wanted to see a musical live, a especially after I found out about Le Roi Soleil.)

 

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Unlike Paris, Nantes was laid back. I was quite surprised to see people not dressing very fashionable (ie T-shirt and shorts) to a musical. (I thought everyone wore mink to such a show).

In Nantes, I also visited the beautiful Castle of the Dukes of Brittany, previous home to Anne de Bretagne.

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During my last few hours, I even illegally rode on the tramway as no one seemed to be checking tickets. ;)

This post is part of bootsnall.com’s 30 Days of Indie Travel project. Day 3: Music

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The rest of my posts for the project can be found here.

 

Change and travelling

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It’s amazing how one person can change your world view.

I used to have the impression that travelling would only happen at the year end, during the long Christmas and New Year break. I even gave in to the thought that the only travel I would be doing is going home to Sabah during Chinese New Year. 

That was until my (now-ex) colleague joined the company. His frequent weekend trips and mid-week flights to exotic locations (thanks to the budget airlines) were a culture shock to me.

I decided to be as carefree as he was. I booked my flights half a year in advance, sometimes with, sometimes without the permission of my boss. I rationalized that if the budget tickets were cheap enough, it doesn’t really matter if I don’t go on the trip anyway.

But, I’ve managed to go on every trip I booked. My dream to visit Paris and to see the Jidai Matsuri were fulfilled this year.

Not satisfied with one long trip every 3 months, I even came up with mini trips each month, trying to see all of Malaysia within a year.

Looking at my TripIt account, I have three trips lined up next year. I’ll be in Hanoi in February, Jogjakarta in April and Da Nang in July.

Now I am also planning for a RTW trip. I don’t know when it’ll happen, but I’ll definitely make it happen.

How have you changed?

This post is part of BootsnAll’s 30 Days of Indie Travel Project: Day 2: Change.

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The rest of my posts for the project can be found here.