My Six-month Sabbatical

Well excuse me for taking a bloody long time to rekindle my love for penned thoughts.

Having allowed myself to fester in complacency for two long years, I have since decided to take a randomly measured leap of faith.

Writing may have been the only thing I knew how to make a decent living out of (or bluff my way into), but it's mind-blowing to see that I've finally gotten out of that comfort zone (into a most uncomfortable one, no doubt). It was a bitter farewell to the titillating food reviews, luxuriant stays in executive club floors and elitist wings, and of course, the wicked speeds on highways and envious stares from the sidewalks..

After you have had a taste of the high life, you really begin to wonder what all the fuss is about. People struggle their whole lives to get to the top, but once they're up there, they don't enjoy the view because they're simply obsessed with looking for the next peak to conquer.

I did realise one thing though - that borrowed luxury will always be borrowed luxury. And i couldn't go through another cycle without being able to share the experience with others through the experience itself instead of a written account of it.

I will give myself some time to decide if this is really where I'll be heading and perhaps, somewhere along the journey, I'll develop the confidence to say that this is what I've been looking for the whole time.

Wilt, thou

Been clocking consecutive 12-hour days at the office. The last leg shall be physically and mentally depleting.

But by George, I'll cross that finish line, hook and sinker and toss the chequered flag into the fire!

Can or cannot?

Words of wisdom from good ol Stewie: Whether you think you can or can't, you're right.

[edit: I stand corrected. It was Henry Ford.]

Waiting to exhale

Forgetting to breathe is a sure sign of impending doom.

Perhaps my time is up.

perhaps

Allow me to take this brief moment

...to introduce, in the face of insane and insurmountable hectic-ness... an atom of salvation

www.usliveradio.com

Those streamed via Adobe Flash Player seem to be quite reliable.

[takes one eternally deep breath before plunging back into the deep trenches of toil]

Read

Really don't know why I've launched into a reading (and as a result, spending) frenzy but of late (well, considering how back-dated this post is, "of late" is hardly the right word), the i'll-eat-anything-chef has kept me relatively informed.

Relatively, because you won't really know what you're gonna do with the knowledge of the things sadistic chefs do in their free time, which is far less gorier than what they do in the kitchen.

I've put them aside for the time being. You can only take so much cynicism at one go. Besides, there's another pile waiting for me. Life through a psychological microscope is infinitely insightful. I'm glad they've put a lot of complicated concepts into laymen perspectives. Psychology Today has a more updated layout and pagination, but I like Psychologies (UK) better for their content.

*Tip: Don't buy off the major chains, get them at a fraction of the price-tag at those mag stock clearances at The Curve or Sungei Wang a few months later.

As for now, I'm already struggling to turn the page on these titles, on top of all the Conde Nast Travellers and T+L regulars.

Have never really been a car person, but I guess, when you have to write about the subject, you gotta know a lil bit more than how to pop the hood. Hmm, this really is more bedtime reading than I can handle...

Isan contd

Absolutely cannot believe how long it has taken me to post these up. I tell ya, when your life hangs from deadline to deadline, time doesn't fly. It skips right to the next chapter even before you've flipped the page.

Lemme see.. Here we have a pic of an open-air shower at Camp Chokchai, a boutique camp incorporated into the dairy farm that we visited. The centre and right shots, taken from a Thai silk-making and weaving facility.

The stop over at Dan Kwian, Isan's pottery district is a decorator's paradise.

The mothers literally raise their kids on pottery - i saw one woman cradling a toddler on her lap and swinging another in a makeshift hammock while carving mud on a swivel.

We put up at Pak Chong district's Sak Phu Duen that has a fantastical poolside mountainview of the Khao Yai National Park (read: Taman Negara).

As luck would have it, I friggin forgot to readjust the camera settings back to high-res mode, so my humble picture is now only web-worthy. And yes, I did take all these pics on the TAT-sponsored fam trip - first and last time, unfortunately, as we've turned down similar writer-only junkets to boracay, kerala, and two other siamese spots ever since.

Here's Suwarnabhumi on the first week of operation. Boy was I glad I wasn't in that ocean looking for a lost bag man!

And whilst Changi wins handsdown in the battle of transits, the new Thai digs are def 'on', that much I can vouch for. After spending more than 10 hours in Don Muang with a sorry fried-rice-with-parmesan excuse for a dinner five years back, anything's gotta be an improvement.

And you know you're definitely in a foreign country when alsations become your lift-buddies. He/She was definitely friendlier than his/her master...

In the souvenir dept, I used most of my bahts at the airport's Jim Thompson, but getting this for my boss was definitely too diff to resist.

spa-ed out (homophobes, be warned)

I don't know if it's even politically correct (yeah, men-and-beauty's-so-salah watever), but to borrow a phrase from a frend, I'm a spa-virgin no more, heh!

Of course it was new and embarrassing and uncomfortable and spine-curling ticklish all at the same time, but I guess getting your cherry popped at Tanjong Jara minimises the bad first impressions newbies at anything are prone to getting.

I won't say I'll be back for more, but it's definitely an experience I'd wanna share with baby. Hell, just give us the oils and maybe we can do without the masseurs, hor?

I've been away. My longest and lengthiest, across, then over, and finally at the tail-end of the main range. Am nursing aches, sprains, bites and sunburns (you really should slather the back of your legs all the way up when snorkelling, and a tube of aloe vera gel def comes in handy) but all that is nothing compared with the amount of anxiety that trails a post-deadline submission of work.

This really should not happen too often.

p.s. trip details and more in a bit.

sorry is the hardest word

I wasn't always sure if we got it right, but watching GA one restless night in a hotel room (this is a backtracked post, so i can't remember which-one-where already) definitely shed some light.

Apologising has been one of my greatest faults. Even before i did something wrong, the profusion of sorries would've rolled out many times over. Which is why it lacks the sincerity that makes it valid.

Miranda Bailey's interjection after being apologised to hit home. "You do not get to apologise. You do not get to feel better about it."

Overly-apologetic people cannot resist saying sorry. We think that everything will be alright after that. We want the consequences of our mistakes to blow over like it never happened. We want to stop the game and restart instantly. We want to feel better about it.

For all those times I've said sorry to you and have not meant it, I guess you know what I want to say next but will not.

You & Them

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest or frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

~ Mother Theresa ~

another quote

..calling to mind on a night (well, it's still dark anyhoo) when your eyes fear the world will change forever if they so much as blink.

It was T+L's editor who said that the blessings of sleeplessness are undoubtedly a regular experience for many of her writers and photographers... 'but these are a secondary grace. Because they follow from the blessings of travel, which last far longer.'

Of course, her lack of sleep was jetlag-induced.

I wonder what's causing mine.

What is it about

"What is it about falling out of an obscenely comfortable king-sized bed, only to plunge, naked, straight into your own private, 10-metre long swimming pool – set against the idyllic backdrop of an aquamarine sea – that completely ruins you for the rest of your life?

To add to this naked indulgence, your own personal chef is on hand to prepare your dinner, or even a lobster banquet." (T+L Oz Jan/Feb 07)

Fug, when will we ever learn to freaking write like that!

WHATT??

This just cannot be for real!

My worry is that their starting salaries for executive positions in the fields of engineering and accountancy seem to gel with the industry average of RM2500.

1500? I can work at call centre and get more than that man!

Since it's already in the March issue

...there is little need to expound on Isan's ineffable beauty. But I will anyway, haha..

The promenade here leads to a former Khmer stronghold, Phanom Rung - a towering display of asparagus bulbs cast in pink sandstone. As can be seen in the next frame.

Pictures may be worth more than words in print, but the experience can only be relived in person. I must admit insufficient time was devoted to writing the piece and much of what I intended to note got lost in translation.

Apparently, the ruins here predate Angkor Wat, sort of like a testing ground for the real thing.

From here, the tablelands of Khorat (Isan's capital, Nakhon Ratchasima) segues out into the Dongrek Peaks of Cambodia...

Between Phanom Rung and Prasat Hin Phimai (another ruin) the former is far more regal, although Phimai is older. Below right: Sai Ngarm Banyan Trees [well, 'tree' would be more accurate; read the mag fmi (for more info)]

Below, the Khao Yai PB Valley Winery and Vineyard. Felt like I was in Melbourne tasting wine again, but the air was warmer here and the ribena isn't really that much of a turn on... then again, I don't know nuts about wine.

The pre-dusk tour culminated in a heavenly Thai dinner from the dining patio with a killer vantage point.

We were quite a raucous bunch, musing about the politics and future of tourism. I kept quite most of the time, of course, but manage to carry decent conversations when it came to one-on-ones.

Vineyards and are not commonly associated with anything Thai, as are cowboy ranches and dairy farms. But Farm Chokchai here begs to differ.

there's more. come back.

At a homily recently..

People don't fall because they are weak.

They fall because they think they are strong. For overconfidence in their own moral strength sets the cogs of folly in motion, and oversized egos eventually deflate of their own accord.

It's out people!

From the World Gourmet pages, you really must get your filthy paws on the Farmer's Platter, a Danish import of the best in suckling piggies. (Karl's Beisl; Bangsar Puteri condo, Bt Bandaraya; 2094 0628)

complement it with creamy mashed potatoes, some Austrian pasta, and one heck of a goulash and you'll beat Adam and Eve at their own game.

So sinful you'll need to do a double in the confessional.

And I've not even started on their desserts - cheesecake, crepe, strudle, sour cherries... homemade ice cream... You're done for, man!!

But the icing on December's cake will just have to be the Rasa lounge at Shangri-La's newly refurbished Rasa Sayang where guests of the Rasa Wing can nurse their Moet & Chandon fantasies to high heaven in between generous servings of shrimp kebabs and fresh sushi.

This, of course, before retreating into your balcony tub - having taken a good three hours to fill - where a welcoming party of soapsuds and rose petals greet you with soothing geranium wafting over the dreamy night.

*photos of Karl's Beisl
by Eric Chow@Blink Studios

Menjamu Sekeping Serendah

Just under 2 hours from the city lies your home away from home.

With a virgin rainforest hugging all that steel, glass and wooden splendour, you'll wake up not knowing how you got there in the first place.

They've also got two air-conditioned sheds made of mud walls (think, cooling mud mask) with an open air shower where chipmunks and chimpanzees can freely ogle at your dripping frame.

Your typical RDA of mother nature and highly recommended for those afflicted with nervous breakdowns.

*pixes by Eric Chow@Blink Studios

Cloud nine

When you think it can't get any better than this..

It does...

No kidding man...

Worship the island, people! There's Batu Caves for you...

Heaven's not far, I tell ya!...

*photos by Wei Hong@Blink Studios