Archive for May 2009

Short Note: I'm torn between moving overseas again or take up a job offer here. What should I do?

This is the world largest Luang Poh Tuad's sculpture at Wat Huay Mongkon.

world largest Luang Poh Tuad's sculpture at Wat Huay Mongkon

Believe it or not, this was a temple built by a celebrity in Thailand who dedicated his life to Thai Buddhism. He then collected donation from the public which helped in expanding the temple,

during a festival

soon you will see a shelter over this Luang Poh Tuad sculpture - a famous monk who lived 300 years ago, it was said that he has achieved nirvana and was able to perform miracles like turning sea water to drinking water.

Director of TAT Malaysia - very humbl and funny guy who kept suggesting that TAT would sponsor me to be Miss Malaysia -.-

Underneath the sculpture there were two elephants.

It was said that if you want to be prosperous in life, you walk underneath the elephant once (one way, no return).

Makes you wonder what do they mean by "prosperous"?

Richard, what's your hand doing?

But what the heck you know, everyone was doing it.

After the temple, we proceeded to visit another favourite destination of mine in Central Thailand.

They call it Hua Hin Hills, I call it another bloody awesome winery.

As you may know, this would be my second Thai vineyard (Monsoon Valley) I've visited in Thailand. The first one being in Pak Chong - North Eastern.

Hua Hin hills was set in the hearth of Monsoon Valley where it can get pretty hot during seasons other than winter.

But what I liked so much about the place was the exterior and interior design. It's very western, modern and the owner even bred a wine dog.

It sure didn't feel like I was in an Asian country.

I have taken some pretty shots of Hua Hin hills vineyard here which I will feature them as my global destination wallpapers in my upcoming entry.

But here's a teaser for you.

Paired with pretty Thai girls,

dining at Hua Hin hills became the highlight of my trip in the central Thailand.

Hua Hin hills offered a variety of wines, which I found really interesting. Amongst of them all was the white Shiraz, which was unheard of for me.

And my favorite sweet dessert wine made of muscat grapes.

You can come here to savor most of their wines for free before you buy any, which was a plus point of visiting a winery.

I took my every chance to try as much as my gut can handle.

I took a liking to most of the wines there that I bought four bottles home.

If I remember correctly, I bought a bottle of white Shiraz for my friend Ron, two bottles of Rose (or god these were heaven) and a bottle of Muscat. And since I was dining there, I spent enough to get myself an exclusive membership with Hua Hin Hills.

Next time if I am in Bangkok and I want wine, I'll just order 4000 baht (RM400) of wine from them and they will deliver them to me for free to my place of stay in Bangkok. :D

Cooliest! I think I'm going to Bangkok again next month.

And people wondered why I love Thailand so much.

Where else can you see Asian labor workers trimming grape vines in a vineyard?

Read Part 1 here.
And Part 3.

Wrote by Nicole

First... watch this video.

Do not scroll down until you watch the video k?

Don't spoil the fun, be a good sport.

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So as you may see from the video.

This was my room!!!

Haha, finally, after going through so many places, here, here, here and here.
I finally arrived in Hua Hin! :D

From Richard's DSLR camera,

I hate it when I get a room all to myself. Especially when it's a super fancy room. Makes you feel lonelier. I want my baby!

Btw, I found out what's outside my balcony.

At first I thought it was the night view of Hua Hin,

hoho... It was WAYYYY better.

Check out the view I discovered from my balcony in the morning!

Say Hello to Hua Hin!

You know, this is part of the reasons why I love travelling.

ps// I swam in that pool the night before. Tee hee

ps// Read Part 2. and Part 3.

Wrote by Nicole

Many people have asked me (they assumed that being temporary Thai citizen, I know everything in Thailand) the very same question most men and sometimes women would want to know about Thailand.

"How much is it to make a suit in Thailand?"

Come on, I know you've wondered about it before. My mom asked me, my guy friends asked me, even my baby asked me.

Then, they ask:

"Is the quality good?"

"Is it worth the trip up there to make a suit?"

Some say yes, some say no.

It's totally dependable on individuals.

Well, to answer your question..

(RM1 =~ 9.7 Baht)

And YES, most of suit-making businessmen in Thailand are Indians.

Wrote by Nicole

for the first time in my life, I can finally proudly declare that I have been (yes, i am going use the word) "pissed" drunk!

It involved black-out, puking, screaming, collapsing on floor,
the experience, I have to say, was refreshing.

Since, well, in some weird twisted way, I have never done this before, nor of course have I experience before.

So I have returned from my weekend cruise in Singapore. Yay~~ *cloud nine*

I don't want to get off the ship. Why must all things good come to an end. *sob sob*
It was so dramatic, first we won money in the casino, not a lot, but not before we lost a wallet with IC, platinum credit card and all cash inside. o.O

And this was all after I got pissed drunk.

Back to my story.

This was what happened. At least what I thought it happened, according to my vague vague memory as of now.

On the first night, my baby wanted to sleep early due to exhaustion. So with a tad bit too much energy and very awake, I decided to take a stroll all around the cruise for a look see. Which ended up to be a 5 hours stroll.

I practically haunted the whole ship that night, watched a movie in the theater (alone T_T), visited the wine shop, walked through the photo gallery for our photos, up to the swimming pool at the top deck and finally, settling myself in the karaoke bar at 1:15am.

The Phillippino waitress came over and handed me a drink menu. I flipped open and saw their Happy Hour list, available from 1:30am - 3am. I thought, wow, what a deal. And they have house pour wine served in glasses for SGD7.50 to SGD8 each.

So I thought, yea, why not.

I ordered the white wine (bartender was nice to give it to me anyway despite it was before 1:30am) and sat down at the bar counter.

you know, one that looked like this?

To my surprise, it was a pretty decent white. Very easy to drink, smooth on the throat and fruity to my senses. I continued to take my sips and watched on.

There I was, sitting alone listening to old Singaporean uncles and several youngsters singing oldies in some tormented tones.

You know one thing about sitting alone in a karaoke bar.

Despite my confidence in my shameless self in expressing myself when it comes to singing in public on a mic, I found that it was an entire different case when there's no close audience sitting next to you to either cheer you on and go down to shame-ville together with you because of your awful singing.

No, it is quite a challenging thought to be singing to a whole group of strangers when you are sitting in the bar ALONE.

But what the heck, I was here I might as well shame myself once before I leave the ship.

So I decided to down another two glasses of my white (big mistake), proceeded to order another sparkling french white (bigger mistake), and requested a few songs (you know where this was going).

By 2:45am, I was singing loudly dancing around the bar with a few equally drunk funny Singaporean uncles to ....er..... well.. I can't remember what song, but I could bet my good dollar that it was something along the generation of "Oh Mandy" and "Superman".

3:00am, I took the final gulp of my 7th glass of wine (or my third red wine, note: these were full glass pours instead of half glass), grabbed my bag and left the bar. Alone.

I wobbled my way down the stairs, hit the lift button, headed down to deck 6, and wobbled all the way along the corridor back to my room.

The moment I walked through the door, I fell flat on the ground, not before calling out for my baby.

He jumped out of bed and sprung toward me in shock. Held me up to support me standing. He might have tried to get me to settle on my bed, but I was feeling really drowsy I refused to obey.

Next thing I knew, I was bending myself puking all over the toilet sink, stomping on the ground every now and then when there's nothing left to puke, only to puke more when the urge emerged.

There were flashes of images where I was kneeling over the floor to get over my dizzyness/headache (I don't really know what the feeling was or how to describe it, but it was quite horrible).

Then one final puke, I stepped outside the toilet and hit flat on my bed sound asleep.

Which I thought happened between 3 ~ 5am.

O, how wrong was I.

Because when I woke up that day, it was already 12:30pm (dang!). He sat next to me and the room was a mess!!!

He told me that I puked almost everywhere, and proceeded to point the landmarks I planted, on the carpet, in the toilet, all over my clothes and I even clogged up the toilet sinks with the vege that came out from my stomach.

Puked five times. Passed out six times.

In accordance, this was what exactly happened that night at 3am.

Walked through the door, passed out.

Carried to bed. 10 mins, woke up, fell off the bed. Hit my arm. Carried to toilet, puked. Came out, passed out on floor.

Woke up, carried to toilet, puked even more, puked on him too. Hit forehead on sink tab. Came out, passed out on floor again.

4am. Woke up, went to toilet. Puked while sitting on toilet.

Came out, passed out on floor. Curled into ball. 30 mins.

Woke up, wanted to puke, couldn't move. Was brought a bucket, puked in bucket, filled the bucket. Brought a second bucket, continue puking.

Laid flat on floor, passed out. 45 mins.

Woke up, turned head to drawer, pulled out drawer, place my head over drawer, slept for a while, woke up, drool into the drawer, blew nose mucus into drawer. Passed out on floor.

Woke up, carried to toilet, attempted to puke. Came out, flopped on bed. And never woke up.

So basically. I was sleeping on the floor from 7am-9am. And slept on the bed thereafter till 12:30am and have no recollection of what happened after 4am.

Ermmm... That explaines the bruises I got on my forehead and arm.

Interesting.

Wrote by Nicole

I found them when visiting the hilltop Summer Palace of the 4th King of Thailand in Petchaburi.

hilltop

Stairs up the hilltop

Summer Palace

Lady boys

Ah~ What a refreshing sight,

The view from here. See? Pagoda in the distance.

While I was browsing around the palace (forbidden to take photos inside, sacred ma, disrespectful to the royalty),

I spotted these little decalicies climbing around the corner underneath the pot.

There's not one, but a whole groupies of them!

This was like a hang out joint for them. They were under every single pot.

Who eats this stuff?
oh wait. I did.

See if I can find a picture somewhere here.

Ugh. seriously. I must be crazy.

I mean, does one can actually look at these and say: "ermm... escargots." *rubs tummy*
One has to be either really blind, or really love escargots.

No, make that blind and anosmia (loss of smell).
God they smell. -.-

wtf The big escargot just poo-poo on the small escargot.

Wrote by Nicole

Short Note: Yay yay.. I'm going on a cruise tomorrow. So long never go on a cruise d. :D
So happy. Gonna head down to Singapore tonight. Too bad they don't operate Star Cruise from Port Klang anymore. :(

Can you guess who these people are? No price for guessing right. But let's have some sportsmanship here. :D

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