Nightmares, flab and demons

I'm exhausted. This week, I found myself speaking, thinking and reacting slower than usual. I was either losing my train of thought and going errrr.....or I couldn't stop repeating myself over and over. Though I knew exactly what I wanted to say, I could not say it the way I wanted to.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm losing focus. A couple of mornings, I find myself not remembering how I made my way to the bus-stop. Or how I made it across the road.

I slip into deep, knock-me-out type of sleep. I don't even dream anymore, except for that morbid nightmare I had recently. That was one of those rare occasions where I was actually thankful for waking up.

I don't go out on weekdays anymore. Gone are the cosy tête-à-tête sessions with friends after work, going shopping and indulging in a sumptious dinner or clubbing through the night and going to work blurry-eyed and in a zombified state the next morning!

Perhaps the lethargy is caused by a lack of exercise. My wound from the operation last year is hurting and the doctor forbade me to exercise. Ironically, it could be the exercise that caused the pain, since I have been pushing myself a bit harder to lose that flab.

Why won't the flab go away? I try so hard but my body refuses to co-operate. I'm sick of wishing for that slim and beautiful body. I don't even eat that much okay, so flab flab go away, and don't think of coming again another day! If I have to upgrade into the next size, so be it. I will boycott Bangkok, the land of skinny girls and tiny tees!

So many dissatisfactions and you must be thinking I'm a very unhappy girl. But I'm not. I'm still that little silly girl who goes a bit bonkers on weekends. Who persists in spoiling herself with waffles for breakfast (thanks poppy!), fast food for lunch, ice-cream in between and a huge bowl of soup for dinner.

Don't expect to see the ditzy girl on weekdays though. She has been sold to a sullen, angsty and tired demon who possesses her every Monday, sucks the life out of her for the rest of the week and releases her on Fridays.

We all know who that demon is.

Someone release the angst in me!!!

What a horrible day at work! Got told off twice by the same person (let's call him XXX) in the same day over some work that I did not deliver early enough. First time was through e-mail. I calmly rationalised why XXX was so hopping mad and dropped an e-mail back to explain myself (+ apologize...geez) nicely. But that obviously wasn't enough, because XXX summoned me into his untidy chambers to tick me off a second time in person.

I was told LOUDLY in my face that:-

(a) I should have done XXX and YYY, eventhough I had already acknowledged this in my e-mail reply.

(b) The work I produced was not based on the discussion we had (i.e. I am stupid and do not take instructions well). *Swallows* This death sentence was reduced when XXX, after going through my work, said "On hindsight, what you did was pretty good to go".

(On hindsight...BAH...I scorn at his grudging admission that there was nothing wrong with my work.)

(c) I don't need any experience to do a certain job (i.e. any idiot can do the same thing, at a cheaper charge-out rate).

Oh well, little incidents like that remind me that shit happens. And I'm that tiny fly stuck smack in the middle of the mess.

GSS - Time to empty your wallets!

I am so screwed! With The Great Singapore Sale ("GSS") round the corner, all hopes of saving money are dashed! Boohoo!

I used to be obsessively compulsive when it came to shopping in the past. Every weekend, I would without fail hit the malls and fill my hands with pretty paper carriers. The euphoria I derived from making my way home laden with new clothes and shoes was fulfiling to say the least.

After making a big investment 2 years ago, I told myself that I really needed to save. So I tried to refrain from going out. I rationalised the following formula:-

staying home = no shops = cannot spend = savings = richer girl

However, staying home proved to be counter-productive for instead of physical shopping, I developed an addiction for online shopping. Bummer!

I give up! Life's too short to deprive ourselves of things that we like. And we deserve to be shopping! Afterall, we work so hard at our sucky jobs from Mondays to Fridays (or Saturdays for some). So it's perfectly alright to treat ourselves to a little something (or a few of those little somethings heee....).

Like what my bro said, it's not worth thinking too hard about whether you should get that RM100 pair of pants or not. How much damage can an inexpensive and innocent pair of pants do anyway?

My hero

I'll meet you in Monaco, baby. Happy Birthday! :)

My Visual DNA

Since everyone's at it, heh! Here's your chance to get to know more about me! :)

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Top 10 things to do in Siem Reap

This will be my final instalment (it has dragged on long enough!) of the Angkor Wat blog series, in no particular order. Enjoy!

#1: Take a swig of the local Angkor beer. In fact, have it for every meal. It's so darn cheap at US$3 for a big bottle.


#2: Visit Angkor Wat during sunrise and sunset and take lots of pretty photos for keeps!

#3: Stay at the FCC Angkor and order breakfast via room service. It's free!

#4: Indulge yourself with an oil massage at Bodia (recommended!) or go for a US$6 foot reflexology session (the duration is 1 hour and they will even throw in a hand and shoulder massage for you).


#5: Have dinner at one of the fancy restaurants on Pub Street. KamaSutra is highly recommended if you're in the mood for Indian cuisine!


#6: Visit the Psar Char (Old Market). If you're getting some Ruby / Sapphire stones for your Mom at home, you MUST haggle, no matter how "auntie" it sounds. The sellers start off with a cut-throat price of US$35 but are willing to dip to as low as US$6 for a pendant.

#7: Buy an original Lonely Planet - Cambodia for US$3 from one of the kids touting outside the temples. Or if you're that cheepo, a pirated version (photocopied) is available at US$1, but I will NOT recommend this.

#8: Take the Tuk Tuk wherever you go. It's cheap, fun and allows you to see more! Of course, this experience includes dust and sand blowing into your face occasionally :)


#9: Check out the eclectic Dead Fish Tower. Have a snack and chill out to some cool jazzy tunes. While you are there, say Hi to the resident crocodile in the back of the restaurant.



#10: Get a 3-day pass to see the Angkor temples @ US$40 and spread out your time evenly. A 1-day pass costs US$20 but it's impossible to cram everything into 1 day. Anything more than 3 days might be an overkill.

Yau's DA man

If you haven't caught a single episode of the latest season of Survivor, you are definitely missing out on one of the most intelligent and intense season.

This season, to me, has the best player in the history of Survivor - Yau-Man. He's not the tallest, biggest, youngest or strongest contestant. He's not a back-stabber or an unethical louse. He is, however, very smart, has a keen intuition, plays fair and is a loyal friend.

Look what he did! Offering the truck he won during the reward challenge to Dreamz. I thought he was mad to do that, I mean, Dreamz doesn't look like someone who could be trusted. But in exchange, he wanted Dreamz to give his immunity idol to Yau if he ever won it during the final 4. Yau could obviously sense that Dreamz wanted the car badly, and it was pure strategy (and possibly a big heart) that he made that offer. Or maybe the truck is useless to him, since he's already got like 4 sportscars at home (hee!). He's a macro man, looking at the big picture instead of the small win. If he wins that 1 million dollars, by golly, he could get 10 of those trucks plus a bigger garage to house all 14 vehicles! Better to wait for the big kill, I say.

And what's even more shocking was when he sent himself to Exile island. I could never understand the purpose of Exile Island, but I've gathered that Exile Island serves as a punishment for the not-so-popular people. In a revolutionary turn of events, Mr Yau decided to mete the punishment on himself! Totally unexpected but so darn smart, coz it gave him a chance to find the hidden immunity idol. Isn't that even better than winning the immunity challenge?

With this last piece of clue, Yau assisted his ally Earl to locate the hidden immunity idol. Great work guys! And I was so impressed that Yau didn't try to find the idol himself. Afterall, he had as much right to the idol as Earl had, didn't he? And with 2 immunity idols, he is definitely guaranteed a spot in the final 4! But he displayed true loyalty to Earl and I was touched by their friendship and alliance.

During tribal council, bimbotic Stacy could not stop shooting her mouth off. She stupidly commented that the votes were going to be split, which is such a DUMB-ASS thing to say. So that threw the sharp Yau off, coz he had initially assumed that everyone was going to vote Stacy off. Picking up the bad vibes with a sniff, he decided to utilise his hidden immunity idol. What a great sense of intuition, if you ask me. If he hadn't used that idol, he would have been a goner.

CLAP CLAP CLAP! Kudos to the greatest player of all times.

P/S: The guy was from Malaysia, you know. *pride*

Creepy moments

Top 3 creepy moments (in descending order)

#3: Kapok trees at Ta Prohm

Don't you think the long entwining roots resemble pythons coiled around one another? *shivers*

Fearless girls who ain't scared of no trees!


#2: Gloomy Bayon

We visited Bayon shortly after sunrise. The dark hallways and faded bas-reliefs gave the temple a creepy appeal. When it started raining, we had no choice but to seek shelter in one of the gloomy hallway. Hope we were not trespassing....

A frightened tourist trapped in Bayon.


#1: "Haunted" hotel room

This is almost unimaginable, as we stayed at a highly-acclaimed 5-star hotel. It happened on our first night. As we were out the whole afternoon, we only managed to check-in after dinner at 8+. What greeted us when we entered our room was a black-and-white picture of an Apsara (female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology) dancer. And she certainly didn't look too pleased.

In the middle of the night, I was awakened by bangings on the ceiling and chair screeching across the floor. As I was darn tired, I cursed our neighbours upstairs briefly for creating such a din in the middle of the night, and dropped right back into slumberland.

Next morning, Lynn asked me whether I heard any noise last night. Told her I did, but was so pissed tired I didn't pay much heed to it. She acknowledged she did too, but she was sober enough to walk out of the room to investigate.

And she realised that our room was already on the highest level.

With that, we immediately requested for a change of room.

The Boy With No Name

Presenting...Travis' latest album!


I've been waiting the longest time for this album! P and I made it a point to drop by town to check whether it's arrived on our sandy shores every week. And YES, sweet P (or Sweetpea, if you like, but NEVER sweet-pee ok!) surprised me with this precious gift yesterday! Hooray!

Verdict? Awesome! They've never disappointed me, you know. Apparently, they were here with Coldplay a couple of years back but I never knew! :(

We live to eat!

After a tiring and sweaty day wandering around the splendid temples, what could be better than chilling out and having cold beer trickle down your throat? Just thinking about it makes me feel damn shiok! So, Lynn and I indulged ourselves with a large bottle of Angkor beer for every meal (except breakfast, we're not alcoholics, so we don't need beer to kick start our day!)

In Siem Reap, we were spoilt for choices when it came to food! Despite having the outlook of a small and traditional town, we were surprised by the wide array of cosmopolitan cuisine Siem Reap had to offer. We sampled the traditional Khmer food - tasted somewhat Thai-ish but sweeter, French - best Quiche Lorraine I've ever eaten, Indian - my favourite! The dishes were so rich, creamy and savoury, and Western - the dubious "Happy" Pizza, guaranteed to make you smile.

Lynn unabashedly asked for the "cannabis-pizza" but Mr Cambodian waiter didn't understand her. So we tried another tactic and asked for the "Happy Pizza".

Look what the waiter brought us - a small dish of ashy powder to sprinkle on our pizza. And throughout our meal, the waiters kept giving us meaningful smiles. But nothing happened at all! Bummer! :(

The very pretty and quaint Le Bistrot de Paris.


Best Quiche Lorraine - to die for!

The exotic Indian food that sent orgasmic waves through my body. Coincidentally, the name of the restaurant is "Kamasutra".


Good food = Happy customer

Temple trippin'

If you go to Siem Reap but decide to do without a visit to the renowed temples of Angkor, you must be soft in the head. It's like visiting Paris without glimpsing the Eiffel Tower, or Rome without stepping foot in the Colosseum.

The temples were spectacular, and viewing Angkor Wat during sunrise and sunset is a must.

Angkor Wat in colour, b&w, sepia and during sunrise.




Sadly, Lynn and I did not manage to catch sunset despite our valiant efforts in scaling to the highest point of the temple. Nonetheless, we entertained ourselves with lots of photo snapping.

Tip: Never look back as you climb, especially if you are prone to vertigo.

Great place to play hide and seek!

Look hard enough and you'll make out Lynn.


Aside from the famous Angkor Wat, there are lots of other pretty temples to explore. My personal favourites are Ta Prohm, Banteay Srei, Bayon, East Mebon and Neak Pean.

Bayon: Towers decorated with the multi-faceted face of Buddha (I think?) glower down at us. This temple has amazing bas-reliefs depicting ancient tales of battles, procession and gods. However, most of them have been severely eroded and we failed to follow the story behind each scene.

Ta Prohm: The majestic Kapok tree with its entwining roots. If the Kapok trees were alive, I would have been scared shitless.


Banteay Srei (Citadel of Women): Small isolated temple glowing in an orangey hue. This temple has the most intricate and exquisite carvings! It was believed to be built by women, as the elaborate carvings are too fine for the hand of a man.


Neak Pean aka "The Swimming Pool Temple": Large square pool surrounded by 4 small pools, all dried up of course. As the temple was virtually deserted, we had lots of fun camwhoring here!

Lynn the tourist transformed into Lynn the mermaid.

Doing push-ups in the hot, scorching sun!


Of course, none of the above would have been possible without our friendly Tuk-tuk driver cum tour guide, Mr LayChet!

The Khmer Experience

I've been delinquent. Got back from Cambodia last Friday but I've yet to upload any photos, much less blog about the trip!! Arrghhh!

The trip provided the much needed reprieve from work. In fact, it was so good that I briefly contemplated handing in my resignation letter the moment I got back. Unfortunately, that is not something that I can afford to do at this point. I mean, look, if I didn't have a job, how else could I finance these glorious trips? Money don't grow on trees, you know. At least not on mine.

I've had people quizzing me about the holiday choice. Why Cambodia? (Errr, why not?) What's there to do in Cambodia? (What's there to do in Singapore?) Are there still landmines littered about? (I guess so, but I'm hoping I'm not so suay) Isn't it dangerous? (Yes, there are robbers lurking in every corner waiting for the chance to mug an innocent tourist)

Cast your misconceptions aside, boys and girls. Siem Reap is a simple and humble town with lots of rustic appeal. It reminded me a little of the rural parts of Malaysia - devoid of skyscrapers, swanky cars and high-tech infrastructure.



More to come on what to do, see, eat and play in Siem Reap! :)