Sunday, April 29, 2007

To my U.K. fan

I have noticed, from my statcounter.com that I seems to have a dedicated fan in U.K. who use a certain methods to read my blog post by post.

I would like to say Thank you for reading my blog :) I know I am not blogging daily but I hope you still enjoy my writing all the same.

Please let me know if you have any special request for me to blog about ;)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Things I Learned from Reading Mangas

I have been an avid manga (Japanese comic books) since around the age of 10 (that I could recalled, since when I got some of the old stuff from the old house I found some of the older mangas that I do not recall having read but they seems to be mine.)

I am sure many parents have a headache of seeing their children reading comics instead of textbooks. While it maybe true that it will serve them better to read textbooks but this way at least they were at least reading nonetheless, and for me, it made a fast reader.

Back to the subject :) Here are some example of things I learn just from reading mangas:

- I learned how to say 'Bonjour mon cheri' and 'Enchante'
- I learned that 'Merci' and 'Danke' means Thank you in French and German, respectively.
- I learned a bunch of Japanese words and their meanings 'Tama=Ball', 'Shiro=White', 'Beni=Red', 'Ohayo=Good Morning', 'Hana=Flower', 'Yaki=Grill', 'Teri=Chicken', 'Tori=Bird', just to name several :)
- I learned a lot about Japanese cultures from various mangas that based on present time.
- I learn that, of all the SE Asia region, Japanese seems to be the most repressed and kinkiest people.

And I still learning new things, as well as, still reading mangas :) If you area interested in checking out some of the mangas to read, please check out my side bar. You will find several links to where you can download scanlations for reading.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Krabi Trip: Day Three

The morning repeated itself with me woke up with full bladder and cannot go to sleep later because of my younger brother's big snoring.

Today my aunt's family had planned another trip to see the crystal pool, hot spring and mountain. I bailed when I heard the word hot spring :p My back and shoulder still sore from the sunburn yesterday and the Nivea cream does not help. So I decided to spend the day loitering around the area instead as well as spending it in the hotel to recuperate. My younger brother also said that the he heard from a friend that a really good after sun lotion has to be Banana Boat Aloe Vera. It was quite expensive compare to other brand but after the sore on my shoulders we decided to split the cost and pay for it.

I spend the day either staying off the sun in the hotel room and go to spend sometime away from the sun in an internet cafe, just 20 minutes because the price is 1 baht per one minutes :p

Early evening it's time for dinner, by this times a couple of families had left and there were only two left, mine and luckily one with a van. We drove out searching for a restaurant that my mom had heard of, but after about an thirty minutes or so of driving around searching for the particular restaurant. The locals were not quite helpful as it seems it is not the kind of place they would go to. We ended up stopping to eat at a place just off the road called 'Rapu Seafood Restaurant'. The foods were surprising good, with the kind of oyster that only available locally. Here is the number of the place 075-631-416 and 089-873-7733.

Later in the night, as only two families left to stay and a few cousins still stay one more day, one of the cousin spend the night in our room. To my horror, he grind his teeth in his sleep... Added that to the snorer that already slept in the room it became a small nightmarish experience...

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Krabi Trip: Day Two, Later in the afternoon

After we return to the hotel, me and my younger brother went back to our room to rest and wash off the sea water. I notice that my shoulder and back became quite red, despite the sunblock I put on at least twice while on the trip, with SPF 50 I might add.

I rest in the room for a while, while the younger kids went for another swimming in the pool. Our tour guide had told us to put on some after sun lotions to help soothing the sunburn, along with taking cold shower.

Around 17:30, we all went out for another family dinner. The food was so so and therefore not worth mentioning :p However, this is when we realize that most of the kids have allergic reaction to the sea hornet and one of my aunt who used to be a nurse will look for medicine for us later on.

After the meal my mom decided that we all need to go to Swensen's ice cream parlour. But after asking around there were none in the area (Ao Nang is not in the city) but there is an Italian ice cream place near by. We finally found the place, which is a small space that sell Italian ice cream brand that I had been in Bangkok as well. But before that we decided to look for the place fon foot starting from McDonald walking toward the beach front. During the trip I decided to walk into a pharmacy to buy the after sun lotion, my aunt also buying the medicine as well. I decided to buy Nivea after sun lotion, because it was the cheapest one. I began to apply some on my arms right away but it doesn't seems to help much.

After ice cream we walk back to the hotel, I went to bed after shower and appling the lotion. And again, enduring the snore of my younger brother...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Krabi Trip: Day Two

My mom told us that one of my aunt and her husband will chaperon all the kids to a four islands tour so we will need to wake up at 6AM.

I had a hard time sleeping after woke up around 4AM with full bladder. After I use the bathroom, I came back to bed to the horror that was my younger brother's relentless snoring. I tried to go back to bed but it was hard to ignore the snore... Before I knew it, it was 6AM with my youngest sister call on my mobile phone to woke me up. We went about our morning routine and went to eat the hotel breakfast buffet. For a rather small resort hotel, it does serve a real breakfast buffet, although with just ten foods to choose from (ham, sausage, bacon, cooked vegetable and stir fried southern noodle) with a large bowl of boiled rice, salad section, two kinds of fruits, toast station and cereal. A present surprise was that they also have omelet station :)

After we had our filled, we gathered in the hotel reception building to wait for the tour guide to pick all of us up with total of about 18 people. We all ride in two vans to the tour company's private pier to board the speedboat to begin the tour.

First, we went to see 'Ao Pra Nang' or Royal Lady Bay in English. Although the bay is part of the mainland, it was accessible by boat only. There wasn't a lot to see in the place because the beach front was quite small and the only attraction was a highly respected Buddha that has been placed in the shallow cave on one end on the beach. It was a beautiful beach with turquoises water and sand comprise of fine crushed seashell. This bay also house one of the most expensive hotel around, the normal room cost 30,000s baht per night and the suite cost 3,000 US$ per night!!! We stayed for about 20 minutes and then we return to the boat for our next destination.

Next, we went for scuba driving near Chicken island. This island have a pillar on one side of the island that looks kinda like chicken head, hence the name. The boat anchored near the island and let us get off the boat to scuba dive. Although the sea water was clear to the bottom, there were not a lot of fish, also all the corals were crushed by the tsunami. However, once I went into water and start swimming, I started to feel a sharp pain like bee sting here and there often, on my legs arms and fingers, and it was not just me. Pretty soon everybody were yelpjng and wincing, eventually I swim close to aunt and she told me to go to the boat and ask the guide what is happen and can we go to our next destination now because there was nothing to see anyway. The guide told me that it was sea hornet which seems to concentrate in this area because of the decreasing tide. Upon hearing this we call everything body back on board and go to the next destination. My aunt's husband was having a pretty bad reaction to the sea hornet sting as he spot red bumps all over.

Our third island is Poda Island, here we stop for swimming on the beautiful beach with very clear water. At noon we had lunch and play in the water a bit more. There were a lot of tourists on this island, mostly white couples and families with some asians and local families.

The last destination and island was Pot Island with is part of the three islands in the parting sea route. The parting sea (I am not sure if this is the official name) is the phenomenon that when the tide was low, sand dune will be visible, connecting three islands together. Our guide said that it was big water day (meaning it was high tide day) the parting will happen around 4:30PM which is beyond the touring time, plus if the parting had happen we cannot return with the boat anyway because of the dune. At the time that we arrive at the island, about 1PM, the dune can be seen in the water. When we get off the boat, I notice that there were fish swimming near by. Soon we all get the snorkle mask from the boat and swim around looking for fish. I spotted at least 4-5 kinds of fish swimming around the area in flocks. As time went by I notice that the sand dune that connects the island became more and more visible as the tide must be lower.

At last the guide called us back on the boat to take us back. It does not take long for them to take us back and to my surprise they actually take us to the beach which our hotel is on. So we did walk back to the hotel from the beach.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Krabi Trip: Day One

On April 16th, we woke up around 6am to freshen ourself up for the trip. Too bad that since it still in Songkran long holiday, none of the food seller show up for us to grab a quick bite before heading to the airport so we just hailed a taxi to DonMueng airport.

The airport looks quite empty this early in the day, but there were still a fair number of people waiting for their flight. This times my mom booked the flight with Nok Air, one of the low cost airways in Thailand. The plane seems to be older model with two engines and two 3 seats row. The plane ride was uneventful, they serve nothing (as expected from the low-cost flight) but you can order snacks and souvenirs from the flight attendants.

Around 11:30am we arrive at Krabi airport, and we gets to go through the new terminal. It was quite a pretty terminal with grey, silver, and marble color scheme. My mom had arrange for the hotel to pick us up at the airport and the driver was waiting for us. Our hotel for this trip is 'Krabi Resort' in Ao Nang area, which is said to be the first resort in Ao Nang. It has a beach front as well, although the water was not 100% clear it still nice to look at. Our first day in Krabi was spend settling in our hotel and a bit of swimming in the swimming pool. And then it's time for dinner.

Click here for photos

After dinner, I was too tired to go out to explore the area so I went to bed. And to my horror, I share a room with my younger brother and he friggin' snore! You see... I have a rather long sleep latency and that is a big problem when add that the snore. After about six hours or so I woke up with full bladder, I used the toilet and then have problem back to sleep because of the snore. And then it's day two.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Blogging from Krabi

Just a short one because the internet cafe charge here is crazy (1 baht per minute)

It was fun, I took some photos with my w810i since my mom still take holds of my digital camera :P It's my third day here, I had been to islands, sunburned, and slightly sleepless night because of my snoring younger bro. whom I share the room with...

I will upload some photos tomorrow when I got home and more details of my times later.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Songkran Time

Just a short note before I went to bed :)

Songkran is probably the best times to *stay* in Bangkok. Yeap, you heard it right. And why is that you ask? Because many people will return to their hometown to see their families. The results is reduced traffic (also because it is long holiday), reduced people, and in general less crowded city.

So if you ever think of visiting Bangkok, Songkran is the best times. Sure some places might be close, you will get wet along the way but you will get where you wants to go a lot faster than usual :)

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Out of the Blues, New Shoes

I was at a bus stop waiting for a bus on my way to work when all of a sudden my shoes gave around my ankle.

You see (or may not see :P) what I wore daily (one of my three pairs) is a pair of Scroll brand, the sneaker/slipper hybrid with strap on the front and around the ankels that came up on top. I love this type of shoes because it is casual enough like slippers but you can run in them like sneakers. They usually wore out after two years, usually the adhesive worn out and the strap came loose from the shoes.

I contemplate for a moment of what I should do. I could still go to work with broken shoes but it would not be fast walking around in broken shoes and I would have to spend time buying new pairs later on. Or I could just went to buy the new pairs right away, as the bus stop is in front of a shopping mall, and be slightly late to work.

I eventually go with the later choice and walk back into the mall to the shoes department. I know where to go although I have not been to that part for quite a while. I notice different shoes on the displays and soon realize that the model that I have is no longer available. There were three similar models to choose from though. The one that seems to be the update of my model have a rather ugly straps parts. So I decided on another one which have soft padded and comfortable looking straps.

I am wearing them now, still trying to worn them down a bit. I am not too happy about this obviously... I do not like to spend 965 baht for something unexpected but necessary such as this.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Rainy Monday

I had quite a good sleep today. I went to bed around Midnight (I think) last night, woke up around 8:30pm and went back to bed again around 11am (I work tonight).

It was raining, as I woke several times in my second sleep, I could felt the dropping in temperature and pull the blanket over my legs. It was the time that I wish it would never end as I stay comfortably in my bed with the cool weather that make it even more sleepy. It was the sense of peace that I rarely have lately.

I will have to try to make it happen again...

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Sweet Sacrifice

I had been a fan of Evanescence ever since I heard their first single a few years ago. It is one of those songs that I have said that it required a body size speakers to listen to the song with your whole body.

With their new album "Open Door", I fell in love with the first song 'Sweet Sacrifice' the moment I heard it. Such an uplifting song for me indeed :P

So today I saw on Yahoo that the band finally release their third single (meaning making music video for it nowadays) and it is 'Sweet Sacrifice'.


I love the looks of the whole video, which match my feelings when I listen to the song, as it has the slightly mental and rage filled looks to the whole thing.

This release has lifted my spirit quite a bit from what happen earlier...

PS: I had post this MV from Dailymotion and not the usual YouTube due to the feud brought on by YouTube initial refusal to remove the offensive clip toward our King on their site. As a results the Thai government has ban the whole website YouTube from Thailand, which might prove to be successful tactic as YouTube later removed the clip. However, the ban is still in action as although the clip has been remove, the still images of the clip is still there.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Contract Terminated

My boss send words that she wants to meet me as soon as possible so I set up an appointment today. As it turns out, it is about ending my contract (her words) which read You are fired.

To be honest, I am not too upset about this, other than the forlorn feeling like when you are the dumpee instead of dumper. I do wants to leave this job anyhow, but my terms is only when I had found a new job.

So now I got one month notice before I would be unemployed. I guess it's time to make use of the office supplies in document preparations.

Monday, April 02, 2007

It's Dah HEAT

The weather is Bangkok has gone into full blown Summer. With the highest temp. of 38C and lowest of 28C, it is really getting depressed trying to sleep during the day...

My sleeping attire had changed from the slick fabric pajamas pants and sometimes loose t-shirts to the slick boxer shorts and tanktops and that does not help much. Early this morning, I even have to resort to turn on the A/C. I rarely do that since my room is not air-tight. Also, the A/C is remote control operated only, it is quite old that the remote control only works half the times... But it kept me sane this times...

I can't wait for my day off... I really need some rest.