THE FREAKIN LONG NEW POST 09' - Holiday anecdotes and travel "logs"

Sorry for not posting anything for about 4 months. The only people that read this spent the holidays with me. So I'd just be repeating myself. But i figured i might as well keep this up... if not it just means I'm getting lazier and lazier. Haha...

SO.... LOTS WENT ON... SOME GREAT MEMORIES... BUT QUICK OVERVIEW...
Over the year end break til my return to Brissie... I...

- Went home to KK for a few days before heading to Singapore to spend time with Shannon and wound up buying toys more than anything.
- We then took a bus down to KL to meet my family and stay there for a few days before...
- The whole family including Shannon and Tommy flew to Cambodia where we spent time at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
- Then we all flew back to KL-->KK and I spent time there with my family while Shannon flew back to Singapore for his Kendo Camp.
- He flew back on new year's eve so we could celebrate the new year together.
- Then on the 10th of Jan 09' I flew to Singapore with Shannon since his new semester was going to begin on the 12th.
- Went to classes and Kendo training with him and read my Camera Assistant's book.
- Sadly flew back to KK without him on the 1st of Feb where my parents picked me up from the airport.
- Unpacked and packed for Thailand where Kevin (my cousin) and Shinko's wedding was to take place.
- Shannon found out he could make the wedding and bought last minute tickets. Yay!
- Left for Phuket, Thailand on the 4th of Feb.
- Shannon joined us on the 5th of Feb.
- Attended the wedding and filmed it for them. It's the first wedding I've attended in my life... surprise surprise... and it was a cool one.
- Left Thailand on the 9th. Shannon flew back to Singapore on a separate flight.
- Flew back to Brissie with Char on the 13th via KL where we stayed for a night with our parents.


In Singapore I got to spend time with my baby! Something i normally am not able to do. It was fun during the Dec hols when i went to visit the 1st time. Cos all we did was walk around the shops and buy stuff. I bought toys mostly, for myself and for Stef and Doug. Bought this really cool General Grievious mini-bust that will be displayed in my future apartment/house. HAHA!

Then during my 2nd visit, I went to his classes with him where i read my camera assistant's book and went to his Kendo trainings and got to support him at his Kendo competition. It was a fun experience. Kinda exciting. His classes were not my thing of course, which is why i had my book. And i realized that i was right to rule out Engineering for myself ages ago. All those equations... they're so tough! I wouldn't have any idea how to deal with them. Anyway, it was nice to be there to experience uni life with him and spend every moment with him. And of course when i left i could stop crying.

Fun fact: I managed to visit the toilet of every shopping mall we went to in Singapore cos of my pea-sized bladder. It was around then that Shannon said i should get my bladder checked. After Cambodia, my mom said the same thing. Checked and the doctors said there were no problems. So... eh... should be fine.

FUNNY STORIES

STORY #1:
SINGAPORE, a week day, around 4pm.
Shannon and I are at a bus stop waiting for the bus to take us to NUS (National Uni of Singapore) for his kendo training. He is carrying his bogu (armour)which weighs about 7kgs, shinai (bamboo sword) and bokken (wooden sword). And cos he's carrying so much, i help him carry his backpack, which has a change of clothes, my book that i read while they're training and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, the backpack is bulky.

So Shannon and I are talking and suddenly i feel a bump, like someone bumped the backpack i'm carrying, so i kind of swing on the spot from it, then regain my balance, and think nothing of it. Not bothering to look back cos to me, that's minor, and in Singapore, everyone bumps everyone around, they have no sense of other people's personal bubble, it's retarded!!

Anyway, so i'm quite used to it by the time this happened. So after the bump, i'm standing there and we're talking and suddenly i realize there's this voice behind us, sounds female, speaking fast, loud, and is quite high-pitched. So i turn around to see where this is coming from, only to realize that there's this old chinese-looking lady, probably one head shorter than me, wrinkled, with short curly hair down to her ears, gesturing angrily with an umbrella in her left hand and speaking in a volume short of yelling, all the while looking at ME!! And the rest of the people waiting for the bus are looking at her and then at me and then back at her.

Ok, at this point my brain has established that she is in fact angry at me for something, so i start to listen carefully to what she's saying and a combination of swear words that i have never ever heard used before in this order; or in fact, ever used together in a sentence at one go, comes out of her mouth.... (in a Singlish-Singaporean English fashion of course) "FUCK YOUR MOTHER CHICKEN BASTARD!!" and she goes on and on at me, with the same combo of curse words. Waliao.... cursing my mother!! Senile, uneducated, foul-mouthed old lady!! But i felt no anger or rage. At first i was a bit puzzled; what's she scolding me for? And i dropped that thought when i registered that what she was saying was actually quite funny and if possible, quite unique!! I've never heard these words used like this before... haha... bloody Singaporeans...(no offence to the alright Singaporeans like my good friends Kannan and Suba). But anyway, i tell Shannon and he says something along the lines of, "really? why [is she scolding you]? Just ignore her." So i turn back around to look straight ahead and ignore her. Sure enough, after awhile... silence... it seems safe to turn around to see if she's gone.

So i cringe my neck to look behind me, she's no longer there. BUT THEN I NOTICE... like 3 metres away, she's standing on the curb staring at me with her evil eyes and she starts waving her umbrella around again as she continues to curse and swear at me, and i must say... what weird things she cursed me with... i remember something like, "curse you no money take taxi home! no money take taxi!" and a bunch of hokkien or chao zhou swear words in a chain that i didn't understand. Then, i didn't think to retaliate or do anything about it, i just didn't want to get into trouble if i did say anything back, she could have reported me to local authorities and i could've been deported or banned from the country OR blacklisted, that would suck cos i wouldn't be able to visit Shannon or ever go there on holiday... even though Singapore is a shit place to visit if you want a real holiday. It's the kind of place you go to if you want to shop... like KL. So anyway, i faced the road again and spoke to Shannon in another attempt to ignore her so she'd go away. And after what felt like over 5 mins, i turned around and she was gone. Crazy old lady... I was a bit afraid she'd hit me with her umbrella!! haha!! That would've been funny. But i would've had to do something about it then. Verbal abuse i can take... but not physical attack! Even if it was from an old lady. Hahaha... Told Shannon later on and he said if she did whack me with her umbrella he would've whacked her with his shinai. That wouldn't have ended well i imagine. But it would've been interesting to see an old lady whack someone with her umbrella and get herself beat up by a bamboo sword, don't you think?? Hilarious...

STORY #2:
SINGAPORE, sometime in the morning when i wasn't fully awake yet.
I get up to use the toilet, Sheldon, Shannon's brother is up and watching tv in the living room area. Shannon's mom is kneeling down and looking for something in Sheldon's room with the door open, her back facing me. As i mutter a sleepy "morning" to Sheldon, his mom speaks to him around the same time from the room, so her voice was louder than mine, and she probably didn't hear me.

Anyway, I head to the toilet, pull shut the grey plastic door that has no lock, sit down, do my thing. And you know that sleepy feeling in the morning where everything you do, you have to linger a bit before completing the task? Well, i sat there for awhile even after i had relieved my bladder, holding the folded toilet paper in my hand, staring at it blankly... then i hear Shannon's mom talking to him and her voice was getting louder and louder as she approached the toilet door. I snapped out of my daze and in my head was hoping she was only using the sink that was outside. But she wasn't. She pulled the door open and was shocked to see that someone was inside... that someone being ME. Me and my naked butt. She stood there, stunned, for what felt like 5 seconds, eyes wide and gaping at the sight of my bare ass on the toilet bowl with toilet paper in my hand. Then, realized what just happened, she pulls the door shut and apologized many times, and explained how she didn't know i was inside and was wondering why Sheldon shut the toilet door (because usually after we use the toilet, we leave the door open), so she obviously didn't hear me when i said "morning" before, and didn't see me either, cos her back was to me.

Anyway, i was equally stunned i suppose, but came to terms with it seconds later. At least it wasn't one of the boys!! I yelled back from inside the toilet to aunty, saying it was okay and that i'd be out soon. When i came out, aunty was in Sheldon's room, the door was shut this time, probably a good idea cos that saved us some awkward eye contact and conversation. I went back to my room and didn't see aunty til i woke up later. Told Shannon about it and he just laughed. Talk about making an impression! Hahaha... worse one i've ever made!


THE CAMBODIA TRIP (PHNOM PENH & SIEM REAP)

This trip was great for 2 reasons.
REASON 1: My family hasn't really been on a year end trip outside of Malaysia for awhile. Either dad's busy or mom's busy, or both, or someone has some government exam... So we usually just spend a week or so in KL and the rest of the holidays, i spend in front of the tv watching movies!! And occasionally, hang out with old friends.

REASON 2: Shannon got to come along, hang out with the family and we could spend time together. In total, I only get to see him for 3 months in a year, or in other words, one quarter of a year, which is hard on us both. And therefore, every extra day that we get to spend with each other is a bonus. So the fact that mom and dad were cool enough to ask him and Tommy along, was really kind and understanding of them. Love you mom and dad!

None of us had been to Cambodia before, except mom, who first went with some friends of hers the year before and suggested the whole family see Angkor Wat these holidays, one of the seven wonders!

We flew to Siem Reap, and on the day, drove straight to Phnom Penh, only stopping for breakfast (where i clogged the restaurant's toilet), lunch and toilet breaks.

The short version of this part would be:
-before we left Siem Reap, we had breakfast cos everyone was hungry after the flight. I remember most of us ordering the beef noodle soup. That was yummy. And dad and I ordered the special Cambodian coffee which was served in a unique way. It was quite sweet, too sweet for my taste, not what i was used to.
-stopped after our van's tyre burst. We were all fast asleep and were shocked to our senses when an extremely loud POP sound (which sounded like a gun shot) came from the back of the van. The tyre burst and we had to stop by the roadside to wait for the guide and the driver to repair it. We also had to get the tour guide to ask the owners of a nearby house if we could use the toilet, cos we were all busting after waiting awhile. The toilet was a hut at the back of the house. It was dark once i shut the door so i couldn't see where i was peeing... could only go by memory where the hole was. There was no clean running water, so we all used Shannon's wet wipes!! My baby's always prepared!! Mom and sisters distributed Kit Kats to the children of the house. Haha...
-stopped for lunch, at this place with a gajillion flies, that was annoying, but the food was great. We had Lok La Beef which is a Cambodian beef dish, very very delicious, tender beef pieces in a nice peppery sauce with some veges on the side. We kept ordering this at every restaurant we went to from then onwards and by the third day of the trip, we didn't anymore, cos we were quite sick of it. Haha. And while waiting for food, Dougie attracted some attention to himself as he was playing Guitar Hero on his DS. Some of the waiters and waitresses stood behind his chair and watched him play. That was amusing.
-stopped at a market type place for a toilet break and the little girls came to sell us ready cut pineapples, mangoes, whole fried tarantulas and other things. Tommy made the mistake of taking out his wallet and they all swarmed towards him!! Scary!! Amazing thing is that they could speak a bit of Mandarin and greeted us with it.

When we finally reached the hotel that we booked through mom's tour guide (from her first Cambodia trip) close to dinner time, mom took one look at the room and was displeased. She told the guide that she wasn't happy and wanted to upgrade to a four star hotel instead of the three star we were at. That cost extra of course, and we were stuck there at the lobby of the hotel we "rejected" for about an hour and a half. We didn't get to see the rooms at first cos we were watching the luggage as mom, Char, Tommy and Steffi went to take a look. So later on, when dad, Doug, Shannon and I went to see Steffi's room and came back down, Shannon told me the room gave him the chills. Haha! It was one creepy room; dimly lit, brown watermarks on the ceiling and corners of the walls... tiled floor instead of carpeted... sheets that looked like they hadn't been touched in months... you get the idea.

So why were we hanging out with all our luggage at this hotel we weren't even gonna stay at? Cos the driver went to get the van checked after replacing the tyre that afternoon, and got lost on his way back!! Cos he's a Siem Reap driver. Not Phnom Penh! Anyway, we were waiting for that and also for the guide to arrange a change of accommodation.

Eventually, the driver found his way back and we had a delicious dinner at this really cool restaurant that had 5 storeys to itself and different set ups/decor for each level, then checked into a much much nicer hotel where some politician's son coincidentally was having his wedding reception that night. So there was Cambodian music blaring til late at night, but we were all so tired, it didn't matter, don't remember anyone complaining that the noise kept them up the next day at breakfast.

Anyway... I don't expect you to read all the details of our trip and typing it all out would take days. So i'll just give you the highlights.

On the second day, the restaurant where we had lunch & whose toilet i clogged gave me FOOD POISONING!! Argh!! Okay, or maybe it wasn't that restaurant's food. The guide told me that it could've been the pineapples and mangoes that we bought from the market the day before that caused my stomach upset. But the weird thing is that everyone ate those mangoes and pineapples too, not just me, but they didn't get sick!! Anyway...That night when we were having a fancy dinner at the F.C.C. (Foreign Correspondents' Club) which was clearly there to cater for tourists with their western dishes and cocktails... I felt a bit dizzy and sick. The smell of certain things made me want to vomit. Sure enough, barely halfway through my dinner, i had to run to the toilet. I made it to the sink and started to vomit. Ugh... the gross feeling of a mix of digestive juices and semi-digested food chunks and liquid came gushing out. My throat felt really sandy afterward and cos of the constant vomiting, it was hard to breathe and my eyes teared up and my nose went all runny and smelled of my vomit. It was not a pretty sight. I clogged the sink. And after cleaning up, i went back out and had no appetite to finish what i ordered. I ate only what i felt like eating and let Shannon finish the rest. I still visited the toilet from time to time when i felt like i was gonna puke again, or sometimes just to blow my noise or spit some phlegm that came from the vomit... but one time i was in there blowing my noise in front of a different sink, and a waitress came in with a straw, looked at the sink in disgust, used her other hand to cover her nose and then started to poke at the bottom of the sink with the straw in an attempt to unclog it. I didn't dare say it was mine. But I did feel bad about it.

The next two days in Cambodia were shitty for me, food poisoning ruined the food for me, i had to seriously watch what i ate. Nothing too oily, nothing raw/uncooked, nothing that could potentially upset my stomach... I didn't vomit after that night, but the feeling in my stomach was unsettling and uncomfortable. Occasionally, I also had diarrhea. Shannon took care of me though, and made sure i ate the right things, even though sometimes i wouldn't listen and regret it later.

After 2 days in Phnom Penh, we went back to Siem Reap. The same driver and guide drove us back and took us around.

The memories from both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh that stuck with me (in no particular order) even though i wasn't feeling so well are...

-heading out on an hour long boat ride, the whole boat to ourselves with the guide, to visit a local family that made silk under their stilted home, and also to visit the local school to see how classes were run and the condition it was in and the facilities there. The family that made silk had exceptional skill at what they did. It looked really complex with all the different layers of thread and how they thread it through with a "shuttle". The daughters had to weave the silk thread together into a cloth either with or without pattern and sell it to tourists to pay for school fees. Tough life. We should all be appreciative of what we have. And the school's classrooms were dimly lit, really bad for their eyes. They used chalk boards, had the really old computers to use in their computer building, the ones that take diskettes and have chunky square monitors. Char and Stef talked to the English class at the request of the teacher, introduced themselves and all... that was an eye-opening experience.

-Shannon and i buying our rings at this lady's jewelry shop. Mom met the lady during her previous trip to Cambodia and she and her husband were very welcoming. They served us something called "milk fruit", named so cos of their milky texture. I tried it despite my food poisoning and liked it!

-playing pool with Shannon after dinner at the F.C.C. in Siem Reap (not to be confused with the F.C.C. in Phnom Penh where i clogged the sink with puke)

-trying to remember how to swim in the hotel pool with Stef, Char, Tommy and Shannon. Douglas decided to join us too late, by the time he got changed, we were already out... He wasn't happy...

-eating steak at this restaurant called the RED PIANO where they named a cocktail after Angelina Jolie cos she was there after filming Tomb Raider. My tummy still wasn't doing that well, i didn't listen to Shannon and had steak anyway... regretted it later... had a bit of indigestion.

-having the dead skin of our feet bitten off by little fish. The locals called it "fish massage". It was really ticklish at first, everyone started yelping and giggling uncontrollably. Then after awhile we got used to it. Shannon got bitten the least. Haha... the fish would come and go around his feet. Who knows if they really did bite off our dead skin. It was just for fun anyway.

-going to see a local doctor for my food poisoning in his dodgy, messy office with books and papers piled all over his desk, behind him, behind the door and in the corners. There was barely any room to walk around. It was one cluttered office. I was a bit iffy about the medication that was prescribed and the suggested dietary constraints, but he was my only hope. So I had to follow the diet (only porridge, eggs, cooked veges... etc) and take the disgusting medication. One was a lozenge and i had to keep it in my mouth til it melted. That one was horrible! Had to take it 3 times a day or something, after meals.

-going to the casino in Phnom Penh. Dad and Shannon won quite a bit, whereas Tommy and Char lost. Haha... I didn't gamble, mom gambled a bit at roulette i think, and in the end, hers and dad's losses and winnings added up to a bit of winnings. Biggest winner of the day was Shannon! Haha...

-seeing tons and tons of ancient temples including the Smiling Buddha and the Angkor Wat. We walked til the soles of our feet felt flat. haha... was great to see it all but very tiring, especially cos it was a hot day and our guide wouldn't stop yapping about the history of the place, making us stop every 5 steps to explain something. He was a nice guy, but very long-winded when it came to guiding us through the temples, particularly the Angkor Wat. We felt like his history students on some class tour. Haha. And the toilet was freaking far away!! And Dougie kept complaining, saying he couldn't walk any longer and sometimes saying he had a stomach ache... He's too young for sightseeing at the moment, so his attitude was understandable.

-visiting several arts and crafts centres, including the silk farm and the sculpting arts centre. We were shown the stages and processes of how silk thread is obtained from silk worms and also the processes of how the talented locals painted paintings and sculpted artworks and souvenirs out of wood, metal and clay.

-and lastly, the most depressing and terrible experience of the trip (which i totally blocked out until Charlene reminded me of it) was the prison visit. Pol Pot? I think that's how you spell it, this guy was basically the Hitler of Cambodia. And for some reason the guide thought it would be a great experience for tourists! Idiot! It was fully depressing and horrifying. They had walls and walls of pictures of the deceased, young and old, including some pictures of babies that were killed during that time! That was upsetting, the babies and children were so cute, but they were all dead. Hai... and there were pictures and actual torture tools and methods that were used. And there were empty rooms with the dried blood stains and pictures of how the victims of the Pol Pot regime were abused, tortured and later found dead in their cells. What an attraction right? And we were on holiday! What the hell!? I'm so glad that Douglas was throwing a fit and sat out on this early on when the guide was going on and on about the history of Cambodia and the Pol Pot regime (which was like a history lesson we didn't need, but our guide, if i'm not mistaken, is a history teacher!! haha... so yeah, you can imagine how long-winded he was about the matter), dad sat out too, to take care of him. So they didn't see most of it. Thank God.

** Fun fact #1: I clogged 2 toilets and 1 sink in the first two days i was in Cambodia. That's my "record" for clogging things so far. I've clogged my apartment toilet here before... we needed a plumber who almost gave up and ended up sawing some air pipe thing to finally release the pressure and all this guck came gushing out into a bucket. Needless to say, we chucked the bucket...

Fun fact #2: There were some really funny misspellings in their menus. Some of them were so off that we could make up our own stories about them. For example, baked chicken was spelled backed chicken. We joked that the chefs tenderized the chicken with their bare backs, by forcefully smashing their backs against the chicken on a bed-like platform. Another example, don't ask me what they meant by this... volcano grilled beef... we decided that it mean they flew a piece of meat by helicopter over a volcano and lowered the meat by cable onto the top of the open volcano to cook. Then flew it all the way back to serve it to us. Then there was something on the menu called French Fried, and that was funny until we took it as meaning a fried Frenchman. Haha. Gross. Imagination is a silly thing isn't it? Very amusing whether bored or not.

Fun fact #3: There were 5 different coffees at the restaurant that gave me food poisoning. I attempted ordering one, and was told they didn't have it, so i ordered a different one, and was told they also didn't have it. Then the waiter told me to "chain my order" (change my order), so i ordered the same drink as Shannon. If you don't have it, don't put it on the menu!!!

Fun fact #4: I almost fainted at one of the markets thanks to my food poisoning ordeal. Didn't want history to repeat itself so i tried not to black out this time. I always seem to faint or be close to fainting when i get serious food poisoning. Anyway, it was embarrassing, one minute my mom and sisters are looking at souvenirs from a stall and the next minute, the stall's people take out a foldout chair for me to lie on, fan me with their ratan fans and hand me a bottle of water in the middle of the marketplace walkway. Oh well, food poisoning has always embarrassed me one way or another.

Fun fact #5: In Cambodia, people don't stick to their lanes when driving, but they hardly honk at each other in anger either, only as a friendly gesture. It's like they might as well not have white lines differentiating the right lane from the left. It's interesting though. When they overtake, and the car that's coming in our direction slows down to let us back into our lane, not like in KK where we have to speed up before the car comes. They're very very tolerant and patient drivers.

Fun fact #6: Charlene couldn't stop laughing at these pigs that were strapped on to the back of motorbikes while being transported to who-knows-where. They were tied with their legs to the sky, which did kinda make them look funny. While we were driving from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, we spotted so many motorbikes with multiple pigs strapped on their backs and every single time Charlene would crack up. For everyone else, it was "cute" and amusing at first, but we didn't laugh after that. Haha.

Fun fact #7: At one of our temple ruins visits, Dougie desperately needed to go to the toilet. We were so far away from one that our guide paid someone for his motorbike, rode himself and Dougie to a toilet, then rode all the way back. Haha! Talk about commitment to customer satisfaction!!

Fun fact #8: All the toilets in Cambodia discourage people to throw their used toilet paper into the toilet bowl; instead, they have a plastic waste paper basket next to the toilet and a sign above it that tells you to throw your toilet paper in the basket before you flush. Weird right? Well, i think the water pressure is probably really weak and so toilet paper would clog the toilets even if we flushed. That is probably why i clogged 2 toilets while i was there. I thought throwing our used toilet paper into a basket that was exposed to the air was really unhygienic and gross, so i threw it in the toilet and flushed anyway... :P


KEVIN AND SHINKO'S WEDDING

My cousin Kevin's wedding was the first wedding i've ever attended and the first wedding i've ever documented. It was a great experience because most of the family (all the uncles and aunties and cousins) were there for the occasion, so it was like a mini family reunion. Shannon flew down last minute after realizing he could make it. That was a bonus for us both cos if not, we would only be seeing each other this coming June; he's flying over to see me again!! Can't wait!!

Anyway, first day there was spent with my family, Uncle Edwin's family and Uncle Tet's family. Both my mom's elder brothers. Tai Yi, mom's elder sister, whose son Kevin, was the one getting married, was based at the Marriott hotel with her family. It was quite a distance from our Patong Lodge Hotel. I know, the name is weird, how can you be a lodge and a hotel at the same time? Anyway, we spent the afternoon with the cousins, aunties and uncles walking around the area we stayed at. We had a terrific lunch at one of the nearby restaurants, where i had the best Tom Yam Soup so far in my life. The fresh coconuts quenched our thirst, refreshed us and were amazingly fleshy and sweet! Then later in the afternoon, we took tuk-tuks down to the Marriott to meet with Tai Yi and family. And the cousins and parents went separate ways after a small gathering in Tai Yi's hotel room where we fully crowded the place! The cousins went to the flea market to shop around (more like browse) and the parents went for facial massages and other beauty type things. We met back for dinner, some of us ate at a Thai restaurant and some of us ate at a western restaurant.

Typing out our every activity in detail will take awhile and i think this post is too long for most people already. SO, i'll go by the memorable events once again...

-at the flea market, us cousins bought a shirt for Kevin that had a picture of a man in a tux and a woman in her wedding gown, and down the bottom of it said "GAME OVER". haha!!! It was a joke of course, we all love Shinko.

-I went to greet Shannon at the airport with mom when he arrived, while elsewhere, at a Go Kart track, (we were later told) Dougie crashed into a wall of tires cos the Go Karts' throttles were too sensitive and obviously those without experience in driving couldn't handle it. Apparently, his Go Kart was halfway up the wall of tires an angle, and i quote from Char, "it looked like he wanted to drive to the moon". HAHAHA! But mom wasn't happy, cos Dougie hit his head on the steering wheel upon impact, bled and needed 5 stitches above his right eye at the local hospital. Dad said that a boy's not a boy without some scars. haha... so yeah, my baby brother getting stitches was a bit shocking for me, but i agree with mom that if she was there, she wouldn't have allowed Doug to drive alone and he wouldn't have gotten hurt i suppose, but i ALSO agree with dad, boys will be boys and should be treated like boys. They need to be roughed up a little. Anyway, the rest of the days, Shannon helped clean and change Doug's bandages cos he brought his first aid kit and has had training in these areas :)

-we spent most of our time at or around Jung Ceylon mall. On the last night we were there, all of us cousins and Shannon went to get a foot massage. They lined us all up in a row on their yellow massage chairs and we all enjoyed a relaxing (but at times painful) foot massage. It was a funny sight--- a line of 10 of us, including Dougie, all side by side, getting foot massages.

-we all went to the shooting range and that was loads of fun!! Shannon and I chose 5 types of guns and shared the 10 bullets for each gun, so we could have the experience of firing all 5 guns. The most interesting one was the shotgun, i let Shannon go first though, haha. That sent me back a few steps every single time i pushed the trigger. The recoil was strong! The others were a machine gun, a glock, a sniper and a magnum. Mom's facial expression the whole time was priceless, her face was scrunched up from the noise of gunfire and was worried when she saw me "fly" back from the shotgun recoil. Dougie was a pretty good shot! Out of 10 bullets, he hit 7 head shots and 2 chest ones. I was impressed. They were there the day before when i was greeting Shannon at the airport, so when Shannon and I went, it was their second time. By "they" i meant dad, Char, Stef, Dougie, Noel, Morgan, Sheldon and Jordan.

-the wedding ceremony was beautiful by the beach. Shannon and I were there early, to get footage of the "before", he was my camera assistant for the day :) thanks again babe! Filmed some shots of the hotel, some interviews with Tai Yi, uncle E Vui and Shinko's parents, brother and sister, Shinko getting ready, etc. Missed Kevin's "before" prep though, that was my bad. When i went to look for him after filming Shinko, he'd already left for the altar. But i did catch a short interview with him after the ceremony. Managed to film the whole ceremony. Anyway, against my mom's wishes, i filmed the ceremony in boardies and a shirt, instead of heels and a dress. I would've looked like a mess if i did, all sweaty with hair in my face and stumbling all over the place cos of the heels. Anyway, after the ceremony while everyone was having drinks, Shannon and I went to change into more formal attire for the dinner reception after the ceremony.

-the speeches were sweet and entertaining, then there was the tea giving ceremony and then finally, we sat down to a feast! Food was good, company was good. And after dinner, we lit lanterns and let them fly up into the dark sky for luck, a tradition in Thailand i think. Funny thing was that one of the guests, almost got her hair burnt off her head. A lantern that was released, didn't float all the way up, it dipped onto her head and i think a bit of her hair caught on fire. In her panic, she ducked and pat off her hair, so she wasn't hurt. At the time, i was scared for her and couldn't laugh, i remember saying "whoa" under my breath. But later on, thinking about it made us all laugh. My feet were hurting at the end of the night! Cos i was walking around filming the speeches and the tea giving ceremony in heels... Not comfortable footwear... EVER!

-then the next day, we went for an Island trip that Kev and Shinko organised for us wedding guests. It was great! Lots of fun in the sun! haha. Everyone went (except Irwin and his girlfriend Asuka cos Irz was tired from the day before, he was the wedding photographer)! Shannon and i tanned, swam a bit in the coral infested waters, played with a sea cucumber that dad caught n later another one that Char and Stef caught, played like 10 seconds of volleyball (the ball was pumped full of air and was so hard that it hurt my hand so i gave up), fed fish with mom, the aunties and uncle Tet and before dinner, some of us cousins were trying to skip rocks across the sea (Shannon and Noel explained and tried to teach me but i didn't get it. After the sun went down at 5pm, we had the whole island to ourselves for a BBQ dinner! There were all kinds of grilled seafood on sticks with veges (shish kebab style) and chicken if i remember correctly. And there were soft drinks and beer. That was a great day.

-Then on the day we were all gonna fly back (our family, Uncle Tet's, Uncle Edwin's and Uncle Fred's family), Shannon had an earlier flight to catch back to Singapore, so i woke up early to have breakfast with him and watched him go off in a taxi with Jason and his wife who also had an earlier flight to catch, i held back my tears and cried considerably less compared to when i left Singapore in January. Sad...

Anyway, that's all for now. The usual going on with uni work--shoots, assignments and the occasional job offer--nothing worth mentioning, except that i passed up a $1080/month job offer to film occasional special events at 4 different nightclubs, i had my reasons and didn't want Shannon to worry if i did take it. Besides that, nothing interesting. Hectic life as usual. Seeing the doctor tomorrow cos i know i'm getting sick, i blame the changing weather!! I'll blog about recent films i've seen and rate them when i have the time.

That's all for now, thanks for reading and thanks for caring!