Package from Japan

Dear strangers!

What do you feel when you open your mailbox? I believe most of you feel unexcited as you will find a lot of bills and some advertisement papers in it. Well for me opening the mailbox is exciting, I know I will not get any of bills or advertisement as I never subscribe for anything or asking my bills to be send to my home.

So few days ago, as usual when I pass the mail box I will always check it and take whatever it is in it, but that day my silly bf took the bundle of papers from the mailbox and left it in the living room. I did not bother to check it and left the bundle lying on the sofa for few days. Today I went to take some cold drinks from fridge, I saw the bundle and beneath the Christmas advertisement booklet there is a brown envelope. I know that the package is mine since I am the only human being in this house that still make use of mail box to receive postcard, letters or some package. I took it out and yes on the envelope written my name with a Japanese stamp on the left. The package is from Muna chan from outside I can feel that there is something small and soft inside. I rushed to my room and opened the envelope, curious what she sent me from Japan. Tadaaa! It is a pair of neko socks, very cute and with letter in it. The socks are too adorable, I feel very bad to use it, feel bad for the neko to smell my smelly feet everyday. I decided to keep it in safe place and will use it when the time is right! hehe.

Thank you Muna Chan for a very adorable socks! MEOWWWW!!!

Sentosa

Dear strangers!

Today Nani and I visited Sentosa. The weather was not friendly, it was raining for a second and bright at the other second and suddenly the rain poured. I sprained my ankle near the wooden bridge on the way back. The paramedic at Sentosa Island were friendly and nice people but too bad they don't have first aid supply for injuries. They only have bandage. So I went to see Chinese doctor. I hope there was nothing serious, it was my first time sprained my ankle. Sigh.

So our journey stopped here today and we did not explore as I have to rest on bed and hoping that in few days I can walk!

See you then!

Nani Visited Singapore

Dear strangers out there!

My good friend from high school came for visit, it was our second holidays after my last visit to Perth when she was studying there. We walked around from Bugis to Mustafa and Orchard to Marina Bay Sands.

Christmast ornaments and trees are all over the town! Every department store is playing the Christmas song but I feel that there is something missing here. And there is a Chanel private event when I was in Takashimaya.

We are going to explore West side tomorrow! Will update and post more pictures tomorrow, hope you enjoy the pics!

A day at the garden

Dear strangers out there,

It was a lovely afternoon to spent outside after days rain pouring in Singapore, me and bf visited Chinese and Japanese garden, it was my first time visit. The place is nice and beautiful, very peaceful and it's place for people to relax and enjoy the afternoon. I did not bring my camera so all the pictures were taken using Iphone 4S and edited with Instagram.

Hope you enjoy it!

Food: Fried Chicken and Pumpkin

Dear strangers,

Have you ever feel so hungry every hours? I was hungry, I always feel hungry lately. I feel hungry at unGodly hour everyday, I was craving for some delicious yummy homemade food. I tried to make the fried pumpkin with some meat like what I used to have for my lunch in Lahu village. I bought a half pumpkin and chicken, cut it to small pieces and fried them with garlic and chili. It turned yummy!

I started to read again, I don't know why, reading was my hobby back in my primary school, I read all the Agatha Christie's book, Sherlock Holmes, Alfred Hitchcock's books and Famous Five series. I stopped reading when I was in Uni, it just hard to find books that I would love to read till the end. So far I could remember the past two books that I read till finish was the biography of Valentino Rossi and the American Classic 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. I bought Anthony Bourdain: A Cook's Tour yesterday with bargain price from Kinokuniya and then I started to find the other two books by him from second hand book shop and amazon. I like the non fiction, light, travel or food literature that will just transfer us in to the book and go through it like a journey. Reading should be fun not make me feel sleepy or bored.

So what books can you suggest me?

Pai

Pai here we go!

Small cafes along the way!

Good bye Pai, till next time!

Pai is the next destination after the trekking and home stay with Lahu tribe. Pai is a small 'hippie' town located at east of Chiang Mai, feels like Yogyakarta in small scale, it was about three hours journey from Chiang Mai to Pai with amazing scenery and fresh air along the way. There are a lot of place to stop along the way from Chiang Mai to Pai, one of the interesting place is La Vintage, it is a resort and small cafe with French style. The drinks are expensive (about 80B per drinks) and it was not special but it is a good place to drop by and have a look.

When I reached Pai, I was excited to stroll around the town. It is full of arty crafty stuffs and interesting people. Pai is quite expensive for a small town, it's better to booked the accommodation in advance. Foreigners are all over the town and hardly to see the local people. There is a small restaurant behind the police station called Na's kitchen, I read it sells a good food but too bad when we were there the restaurant closed for two days.

I would come back to Pai again to try Na's food!

Chiang Mai - First few days!

Expect the unexpected, as always!

Our journey started with Air Asia flight from Changi to Chiang Mai, it was about three hours flight. The flight was okay, Thai Air Asia have the better service compare to Indonesia Air Asia, isnt that obvious duh! Even tho the flight was re-scheduled one and half hours late but i can say overall the flight is smooth and all of us landed safe and sound.

Chiang Mai airport is not a fantastic or fabulous airport like Changi, it is okay for an International airport in small city. We took a taxi to the old town, cost us about 120B. Chiang Mai is divided to two main area, the old city which is surrounded by the wall and the new city which was built outside the wall. It took us about 15 minutes reached our accommodation, Mojito Garden, a small wooden buildings but cozy guest house. The room is affordable, I booked it through hostel.com. We stayed for a night at the guest house. The next morning we started early at 7 am and heading to Fang, a small city up to the north of Chiang Mai. We took the mini van for 150B and the journey about three hours. I did not see much what's around as I was sleeping during the journey. We reached Fang about mid day and picked up by Chino, our tour guide.

I was a bit skeptical about the trip and everything but this is just the beginning for an unforgettable trip! Chino is very nice guy and friendly, he gave us a brief about Black Lahu tribe, the village up in the mountain where we were about to visit. Chino is the grand son of the chief of the tribe, when his father passed away, his elder brother became the chief of the tribe. Lahu tribe originated from Yunnan and came to Thailand inhabit the mountain side, they plants coffee and tea for living. After the quick brief and lunch we were heading to the village, the journey was about one hour from Fang through the Orange farm, up the hill, through the jungle and the village suddenly popped up in front of your eyes.

There are two village, the first village we passed by is Red Lahu and then the village behind is Black Lahu, the population of the tribe is about 400 people and Red Lahu mainly is Christian, which surprised me more. The village is depending on the solar to supply the electricity to the houses. We stopped by at the coffee plantation and 'dragon turtle' pond. I had no idea how people made a coffee before, and now I know how. Our next stop was the host house whom accomodate us for two days. I did not explore much the house when we reached as we straight heading to the chief's house up at the hill. The Chief is a very quite man, he is far from my imagination which I imagine he would wear something more traditional with spear and some traditional instrument welcoming us, he is kinda modern and speaks perfect mandarin. The Chief was studying in Taiwan for few years where he picked up the language. He showed us the traditional cooking with bamboo. We cooked rice and some vegetables for dinner with bamboo in a bonfire. The view from the chief's house is amazing! After we had yummy dinner (that was another surprised, I never thought the food is superb) we headed back to the host house and went to watch Lahu traditional dance. The village is dark I barely can see the surrounding, after the dance we rest, preparing for the next day.

The third day in the village, I woke up quite early, had breakfast and this is the first time I saw the host family, there are 9 people in the family but still I dont have chance to talk/speak to them because we have tight schedule. We headed to the mountain, the journey was about one hour to the trekking point, we were guided by local guy called An Nan. He does not speak English and hard to communicate with him, he was disappeared few times and we were lost in the mountain. It took about 4 hours up and back to the point we started, I can't believe we made it. The path was stiff and bit dangerous when we almost reach the top. I lost my lens cap up there :(. We had lunch at the summit and then back to the village for resting.

In the afternoon, I had chance to speak with the host family daughter in law, her name is Fillai. She is a nice girl and can speak English. I helped her with cooking and she cooked amazing food. We had talk and then dinner. The village life is not for me, I watched them living their life so simple, working at the tea plantation, feed the pigs and chickens, as for Fillai, her tasks is cooking three time a day, a full time house wife's duty.

The last day in village, left me a little bit of sad feeling, I started to like the village, it is kinda refreshing and relaxing, a break from hectic city's life. We said good bye to the host family and say 'Ow bon ui ja' means thank you in Lahu's language, before we left the village we visited the school. The school is supported by government and I have to say even in the small village up in the mountain, the school is much more better than in Indonesia, the teachers are taking a really good care of the students as well the government. They are providing them milk, vitamin, and foods.

I am going to miss Lahu, even though they are not yet in 20th century but the experience, the people, the food are going to be missed.