Relish: September 2008

A Rapturous & Ravishing Island Getaway

Martin Buber said that all journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware. He reminded me why i used to yearn and have this strong desire to explore and travel: to learn and grow, to challenge myself, stretch my limits and foster an appreciation of both the world at large and the chair in the coffeeshop back home. It is easy to forget some sides of yourself when you feel like you MAY have turned into a human gerbil!!

Well, i hope i haven't! A human gerbil is a hamsterlike, ratty type animal. It lives in a cage and plays on a wheel. They are the busiest lil suckers in the world! They get on the wheel and they just fly. And when they're done, they just lie there exhausted, because theyre so damn busy! It' so easy to become one don't you think?I MAY just be becoming one. I need to remain HUMAN. As i was just reading Warren Gareshes', The Best Damn Sales Book Ever, about 2 weeks back, it sprug from the page that human gerbils never get anywhere; they never get off the wheel. That's what happens to people who aren't willing to stop and take a step back in order to take three steps forward. It has been a full year of non stop mental energy focused on getting to this point, i sure wanted and needed a break- BAD!! I miss that venturous side of me. I miss that feeling of overwheling newness, that feeling of no end to the adventures i can have if i seek them with my eyes open and the journey best measured in friends, rather than miles. I experienced all that on this trip and a rapturous time...but not in the same way as i did when i embarked on a mission in Laos for a month, back in 2003... BUT, royale birthday style like in a Laguna Beach/ The Hills/ Gossip Gal kinda way =)

Living just like in the pages of magazines

Travel and change of place impart new vigour to the mind- Landing in the early morning of Phuket's International Airport, you come to feel or can only imagine what they feel, the thousands of foreign tourists who were stranded here, the beach resorts and a nearby tourist town, for more than 24 hours after anti-government protesters forced the airports (including Krabi's) to close. Fortunately, the protests lasted only for 2 days and we didn't have to change our holiday plans and went ahead to book the hotels after much monitoring. I wouldn't know what to do if upon landing, hundreds of supporters of PAD, a motley group of businessmen, academics and activists seeking to oust Samak from office, find runways invaded and roads being blocked at the airport!! I counted our blessings as we walked down the stairs onto the tarmac as i looked forward to the land of smiles and an euphoric time.

1 Sep 2008: People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) trying to oust "puppet" Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to step down.

OPRAH says it is good to keep a vision board/ list

It's true, it turned out like i imagined it!

I had been yearning for adventure. So i began imagining a trip filled with many new experiences and then retreating to a sanctuary in an idyllic location. And what better time to, than the most festive period of MY year :) Sitting in Phuket's main tourit area, with Jungceylon shopping complex just next to us and the most popular Patong beach just a 15min walk away (usually just 2mins cus we always asked for the personal tuktuk to fetch us out of the loooong driveway hehe!), Millenium Resort still makes you feel that oasis of calm, like it is described, when you enter its compound.

From the early mornin travel and the 50mins ride from the airport, it was nice just lazin around, enjoyin the balcony with my smokes and checking the different maps on what to we could do for the day- I love that feeling of what could be in store!=) And so we picked our first activity and unleashed our precarious sides!

The Monstrous ATV

My friends think I love speed. I think i love being bold with speed too. I think it was from the time when i tried driving a manual car on the rootop of this multistory carpark- undaunted that i wasn't even licensed to drive, I controlled the car with speed and accuracy, and drove them so close to the edge! Since then, i was labelled a speed-ster. I couldn't wait to free the audacious Jules!!

We started out on a slow ride on the road, getting used to the handlebars for the steering control and getting comfortable straddling the seat; it felt like i was riding a motorcyle, with extra wheels! We sped up towards a trail and followed our guide and explored the countryside along the natural tracks and paths of the forrests.

The first half an hour was scenic riding close to the edge of the hills, with a view of the other little islands that surrounded us. I was enjoying the fresh air but the ride just got bumpier and bumpier. Before long, it got more and more difficult to ride through the huge portholes and ditches. The light weight, high power, good suspension and a low center of gravity machine gives much stability when the trail got really tricky. Controlling it uphill along uneven dried mud was no feat at all for me, it was a matter of shifting your weight, lifting your bums and powering up and letting go of the accelerator when goin around the steep sharp bends (it was almost every 5 seconds!). I felt like i could use this ATV to trespass someone's mansion! Ya know...travel through a forest on a trail like this...then i could like leave the bike in the bushes, slip into their pool in my biks and then push the bike out; no one would even know!! You could bring this ourdoorsy vehicle anywhere! The sneaky illegal cheeky thoughts jumped out of my head when my butt hit the seat so hard- I had hit a huge rock on the edge!! I quickly yanked myself off the ATV alerting our Burmese guide, Peter, who got a lil worried for this daydreamer and signalled in his best english that he take my bike out of the ditch and not worry about goin down this steeeeeeeeeeep slope with bends up ahead!!! I now know i am not that fearless afterall. Boohooo!

On the dirt trail down a steeeeep slope

Having experienced all that with the other 2 adventurous Singaporean travellers, we decided on an impromtu dinner after sunset. So we decided to head back for a dip in our pool first, while the sun set on the impressive ride as we passed Kharon and XX beach.

An idle dip at dusk

No effort in stimulating one to take a longer dip

We were all groomed and dolled up for dinner, with a wide spread of Thai food layed out right in front of us on the table, but i was nodding off big time from the outdoorsy day and no sleep from the previous nite (cus i was too invigorated of my holiday!), we had to bail on drinks with the other travellers haha!

Pictures of DAY 1 (Part 1)
Pictures of DAY 1 (Part 2)

What do birthdays mean to you? What do you love about birthdays? I love the celebrations and the marking of another year of being wiser! It is a time where i count my blessings and thank god for the love and care i have in my life. It is MY time of the year of showing even more appreciation to those i love and by spending it with the people who matter most to me. My birthdays are always a look forward cus since young, my family has this tradition of celebrating all birthdays without fail. It is of course one of my favourite times of the year! It is also considered, in my calendar, a festive period =)

18th September- Analysis of me!

You are a cohesive force - able to bring many people together for a common cause.
You tend to excel in work situations, but you also facilitate a lot of social gatherings too.
Beyond being a good leader, you are good at inspiring others.
You also keep your powerful emotions in check - you know when to emote and when to repress.

Your strength: Emotional maturity beyond your years
Your weakness: Wearing yourself down with too many responsibilities
Your power color: Crimson red
Your power symbol: Snowflake ??!!

Snorkeling!

It's MY BIRTHDAY!! Waking up to a lovely feeling... knowing i'll meet smiley Thai people and the thought of all new experiences we will have, got me samurai-ing out of bed! We started the day grabbing a pastry from Bistro 98 and dashed into our pick-up when it whizzed in to the hotel drive-thru at 715am. We're in a hurry to go out to sea to snorkel at the Khai islands, which consists of Khai Nok, Khai Nui and Khai Kok. An enjoyable 20-minute "private" speedboat ride(as the shop assistant prclaimed), it captured the energy and excitement of my day. With the thrill of wind and water in our hair, we wore our masks and fins to get in (step in- we anchored near the island) with the fish and coral at our first stop, Khai Nui islands.

Khai Islands- Koh Khai Nok

Off we pile onto our 2nd island, Koh Khai Nok, the biggest of all 3 khai islands. First thing you' notice is the colourful deck chairs. I wa so tempted to clamber into one of them under the shade of a parasol and take in the beautiful clear blue waters and tourists spilling in, boat after boat. And soon, i knew what it meant exactly when the term toursit dollar is used! Like Ton's family, they own this beach bar on this island. And their monthly profits are pegged to how many customers that arrive on the island and whether it is a low or a high season. So many jobs in Phuket are dependent on the our tourist dollar, like our guide Samao, our life guard, Peter the Captain, Ryan the Monkey Boy who guided my parasail later, Ton the surfer dude, the Song Tui drivers the taxi drivers, many guides and of course the night bars crawling with tourists, especially caussian men. While walking past Patong beach bars that nite, i even heard a Thai a-go-go gal say to an ang moh man " I Love you". She forgot to add, and the tourist $$$!

Tourist Dollar!! $$$

I couldn't resist the photo opportunities. It must have felt like Oscar night huh! :) The beautiful turquoise water stretching out, with tropical fish swimming through my legs sure wasn't my idea of a classic poise for the camera!! Because everytime a piece of bread was thrown in, there would be a colourful (mostly yellow) feeding frenzy. Cus when you feed it to close to you, the fish bites! I definitely wouldn't like fish therapy! I sure didn't like that feeling and ran away with my camera in hand and the klutz tripped and scrapped her chin on a rock in the water. Ouuuuch, my camera was slightly showered by the splash! But thankfully,it was taken care :) I need an underwater camera cover!!

Excellent Millenium room service- my surprise birthday cake greeeting me in our room after snorkling!

Feeling sunburnt and good at the same time for havin a golden brown tan, i was surprised with a birthday cake as we entered the room. The management of Millenium Resort had noticed that we were leaving the hotel in our bikinis and that a pickup was getting us, they knew approximately what time we would get back. I'm impressed!! All gleeful, we headed off for more drifts!

The Great parascender- Soaring with the eagles

Knowing Joe and co made things so much easier. I got to choose which handsome dude took me up to in the skies and controlled my parasail, Gen had ride on the boat while i soared with the eagles (and Ryan! The Monkey boy too), had 'priority seats' on the deck chairs, smokes bought for me (from across the street, when i forgot mine) and frienship bands with well wishes were given to us. But it doesn't mean you get great discounts!!

Parasailing- an amusement ride!

The day was planned for me and I was way looking forward to the all the water activities on the iternery :) So the next was parasailing! Although it was not what i had thought it might have been, i kinda expected it to be like paragliding, I must say i wouldn't have not done one over the other. Snorkeling is a romantic experience, parasailing is an amusement ride and jet skiing is MY joy ride. I loved it the most! Especially how you can race against the wind, freestyle and jump the waves any way you like. The thrill of the plunge from flying off a big wave at high speeds just makes you wana perform different tricks. Perhaps like those of a big air or technical tricks just like in the BMX and Motorcross competitions, where they're judged on the quality and skill shown in routines.