in his eye...

well, i have a manual SLR u c. i've always liked to bring it with me when i travel. but let's just say, somehow i dun hav very good 'yuan fen' aka 'fate' with this thingy. i've experienced taking one whole roll of film in india, then realized i didnt load any film at all; i've once shot a roll but accidentally exposed it before finish rolling it up; i've also printed out photos i took but turned out like shit. so yeah, my story with my SLR. yaschia. 28mm. *looking for cheap 50mm n 24mm lense if anybody has one*

so, i brought it along for this trip anyways. i took most of my pics with the digital (can't afford to risk it again!), while love used the SLR. well well.. out of 3 rolls, there are some *interesting* ones. but mostly blur. some photographer *ahem* told him that if u put your focus on infinity, everything will turn out sharp. i think he misunderstood wat the pro meant. nways.


that's us.

me. blank.

i look so... contented. but, was i? hehe...

Town mouse vs. Country mouse

Just came back from a game of futsal. after 2 months of not playing any sports, my legs weakened during half of the game. but I must say I still did some good kick, and my stamina wasn't all that bad. Anyways, I came out of the court when I felt I might potentially get a cramp on my left leg. was looking at one of my friends, Julian, playing. he was here last year, playing faithfully every monday like how we used to. then he had to go back to where he's from. after a year, he came back and there he was, playing futsal with us again, as though he has never left.
When I was away, there were little little things that made me miss this place I live now. from the usual mamak stalls and the usual teh o ais kurang manis with nasi lemak kepak ayam, to futsal every monday at 9pm, I guess I enjoy the so-called 'lifestyle' I have here. there's never short supply of friends, mamak sessions, birthday parties, get2gethers.
But there are some things that I feel will not change. due to the pace of life, there's definitely more stress everyone has to deal with. people tend to be a lot more competitive, and usually we tend to wanna outshine the other. whether in our manners, conversations, or thoughts especially, we're constantly concerned of where we stand. Is her dress nicer than mine? Is my work better than hers? Is he earning more than I do? Is he more attractive and charming? THAT's the tiring bit.
When I travelled to all those smaller towns, life was much direct and simpler. Mayb I didnt stay long enough to 'judge', but just being in smaller towns gave me a sense of 'sufficiency' - that i don't have to keep wanting more, that i could live enough with just some basics. these probably isn't all that plus points because some might say that a slower lifestyle may cause the lack of urgency to develope/improve. Nevertheless, what I probably desire in a community life is one that all share, all give, and all care. that we strive *together* to improve the conditions around us, walking hand-in-hand towards a same direction and not pride on glory, that we're constantly in thirst to serve each other and always ready to embrace one another without any prejudices.
This is not an unachieveable Utopia. I have experienced it. The nature of the soul is to give.
And to give credit to all, I believe whether the soul is a 'town mouse' or a 'country mouse', they both have the capability to give. give. give.

more...

the Mekong river

Vahid and Kavitha's kindergarten in Savannakhet. They're looking for volunteers, anybody?


after waking up late, we decided that we won't b going to Vietnam. So Pakse it is.


Mekong river in Pakse


The trios


Going to Don Det, one of the many islands of Si Phan Don


Circling around on the island, asking for direction


Searching for Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong river.


Crossing the crazy border!!!


Ben, playing the instrument thingy he made himself

Being back

It's been 3 days now I'm back in PJ. for the first 2 nights, I had difficulty sleeping. there's just a lot of thoughts running in my head - looking for a job, paying off bills, and basically getting back into life. was feeling rather unsettled, with all the uncertainties that are ahead of me.

But later i met up with some friends, they shared with me what they've been up to, or what plans they have for themselves in the coming year (yeah...end of the year is always a reflective period for many people), it inspires me to want to do lots of things. and YES, there ARE many things that still need to be done! especially as Baha'is, we believe that the old world order is falling apart, with that, there's a lot of work to do in order to establish a new world order. simple things like organizing devotional gatherings, teaching children' or youth classes and getting together to systematically study the Word of God... these are the foundations to building communities. (alright alright, i know i sound like promo a bit, hehe..) but yeah, being young and at the heyday of our lives, if we don't do it now.. when else.

career wise... there's many opportunities lying ahead, i could choose to do so many things and i know i can, but i'll just have to think carefully what is it that i want to do with my life. do i want to make films and go for film festivals? do i want to edit anymore wedding videos? do i want to do my masters and continue studying? do i still want to live in the same apartment that i've been living for the past 5 years? do i want to get broadband internet? do i want sambal for dinner? lots of choices! lots of decisions to be made.

i'm just glad that i have a direction to turn to, if not it's always easy to form a certain reality in our mind and do what we want to do most comfortably, yet not doing what is needed or what could serve a better purpose.

yeah..it's great to be back. =)

Balik kampung

Finally fell ill a day before i flew home from bangkok. (journey back was another adventure all by itself. will write if got time) glad to be back though, basking in attention and care. hiak hiak. mum made my favourite porridge, went see doctor immediately (and got free medication), no need to pay for anything, broadband n cable... but my sweet ol' piano is not there anymore. *sob* sold it 'coz it was being a white elephant at home.

CSI is gonna start soon, so quickly, will just post some random pics. so much to write! so many stories to tell!


Dale, the organizer of the Halloween party at Golee's house. she the angel, me the devil.


We didn't expect everyone to be so sporting! it was one hell of a party that night.


This is where the youth usually hangout. Golee's house - the centre of all activities.


we went to the river. it was cold. we saw fire. two men singing. thai folk songs. sad tragic stories. we made frens.


youth camp!


Huahin was flooded. everyone got stucked at the school, some almost missed their train.


took the train to escape traffic jam. a 3 hr road journey, turned into a 5 hr 3rd class train ride. the boys had to stand.


MORE PICS TO COME!

Back in Good Ol' Bangkok

finally settling in that i'm *finally* going back... this little 2 months travel has been great, met up with old friends and making new ones. will write more when back home. and i mean, home sweet home...

Crossing the border of Laos and Cambodia

Guess what, i crossed the border by land from Laos to Cambodia!! that's really awesome. ehhehe.. it's a crazy-adventure day maaaan...

First, Vafa the Canadian wannabe African dude didn't have a visa to enter Cambodia. we asked around but couldn't get an exact answer if he can get it at the border or not. in the end, we decided to just go to the border and get the visa. if can't, he can come back into Laos, but he's pretty much screwed lah. the border on the Laos side is called Voen Kham. unlike normal border - expected markets, busy street with people selling stuffs all over and taxis, motorbikes, trucks picking people up n down, Voen Kham was the QUIETEST border in the world. (to me at least) the truck dropped us in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of laowai, and a khmer guy in spec n nice shirts who speaks good English started telling us what to do and how much to pay. everyone else had their visas done earlier except for Vafa and another guy (the same dude we met at the beach). we thought we'll cross the border anyway. and the border was just one small dirt road in the jungle. no other cars, no other persons, except treeeeees.

when we got to the Cambodian side, there was a little immigration hut that has "Visa on Arrival" written on it, and a small gate overlooking a long stretch of dirt road. but it was wider. no one lives there, no bus station as promised, nothing. we got our passport stamped, vaf got his visa made with Ben, then the drama starts. there's about 10 of us in the mini van, everyone else that has visas travel with this agency except us, so when the specky dude quoted us the price to go with them, we thought that it was too much and yalah-we took our bags down and say we didnt wanna go! (in my heart I was like: there's NO WAY we could get out of this god-forsaken place.) we took our chances anyway. finally, the lady let us on with 100Baht each while the actual price was a few dollars.

From Stungtreng, we went to Kratie (another drama with the taxi driver), and from Kratie we went to Phnompenh. the original plan of going to Siem Reap straight didn't work out. there's no road there yet. Arrived at midnight last night, with an additional kaki Ben, who's also Israeli (wat coincidence), and today we each rented a bicycle and cycled around Phnompenh. believe it or not, I did it! in this crazy traffic! woohoo!!

can't wait for a nice south-Indian food tonight, been craving for it...

Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands)

After Savannakhet, we were supposed to go to Vietnam via LaoBao and enter Danang down to NahThrang then HoChiMinh. but but but, in the end, we sort of woke up late (hehe..) so we decided to go south, to a little town called Pakse. (oh yeah, Feast in Savannakhet was very small, but cozy) Met an Israeli guy at the bus station and travelled with him to Pakse, he recommended a guesthouse and it's a backpacker's lodge. The dorm was simple, with common bathrooms, and a nice hangout place for food, games, and tv. EVERYONE is laowai = farlang = foreigners. I'm the local-looking one who stayed there. *aherm* left the next day and got on a songtheaw = truck with two benches behind to carry passengers for 3 hours, made new friends on the truck and decided to follow one local lady to where she lives. Don Dhet. We were heading to this place called Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), but since there's waaay too many islands, we couldn't decide where to go. later, made more new friends and got on a boat together to the island. niceeeeeeeeeee....it probably was one of the most quietEST place on earth, but too bad ít was all foreigners around.

The next day was 'check-out the island' day. cycled around and saw the Mekong river's waterfall. *Si Phan Don is where the Mekong River splits into few rivers, forming few islands* Found a quiet beach with only one indian-looking guy and a white chick chilling, then we all too jumped into the mud water. later we gungho wanna cycle to the pier to get a boat to see the Irrawaddy dolphins. There were many tour packages around, one was even USD20 for a day of kayaking and seeing dolphins! we were so proud that we did everything in less than USD4!

Seeing the almost extinct dolphins swimming at the horizon of the sunset, on a small sampan boat in the middle of the river separating Laos and Cambodia, quiet, chilled... no wonder in the Writings it says that city is the home of the body and country is the home of the soul.

Laos here I come...

finally left Yasothon, after saying goodbye few times to the youth thinking that will b leavin earlier, but keep changing plans. took at 6am bus to Mukdahan, and took a boat at 930am and got here. it's always interesting that two countries r just minutes away, divided by a border - whether a bridge, a river, or just a road, but they are both different. there's still similarity of course, they share some similar words in their language, most border-lived people can speak bilingual, etc. but oh yeah, the stuffs ain't that cheap after all! should hav bought more snacks from thailand before crossing. after converting the prices, a small pack of milo is about rm2.00, well, at home probably it's only rm1.20. Besides that, it feels really good to visit Vahid and Kavitha, whom I never really got to know them well, but just the fact that they are Malaysian pioneers in this small simple town, brought us to their home/kindergarten, it was very heartwarming, seeing the kids running around, and their daughter and newborn boy...

p.s missing rendang back home! :-)