SLOW MO really slow

The long awaited competition is here. My 1st comp since i started climbin about 4 mths ago. Was pretty nervous when I reached Summit seeing all the pros there…redv was no where in sight yet…. Palms getting sweaty. Our team name was called ‘SLOW MO’….and I can’t agree more with the name…Climbing starts from 9.15am to 5.15pm. My flag no. was 203 (anyone wants to buy 3D or 4D can try different combination using this no.).

We have to complete at least 1 top rope (total 20 routes) & 1 boulder (total 12 routes) in order to qualify. I manage to complete only 7 routes out of 20 and chicken egg for bouldering. It wasn’t exactly a great feat but I like to think that I’m not the worst among the gals, YEAH!…I manage to complete a few more routes than one of them (yea…jus one of them)...climb until my arms & legs were all shaky. Hafta gulp down 2 cans of Red Bull jus to keep me goin for the 2nd qualifying round, bouldering….Though it wasn’t much of a help….by then my arms were kinda pumped. Redv was way much better then me but since I din qualify for the bouldering, can’t win anything, not even the lucky draw….

Even Muhammad Zaki (Silver medallist in men speed climbing from Singapore) was here competing. Recognize him since I manage to catch Asian X Games in ESPN finals and with his hairstyle I can’t be wrong. Even Malaysia’s Silver medallist were there too
So, overall, it was a great experience & hopefully I’ll b able to win something next time (geez….actually losers alwiz says this jus to make ourselves feel better)…..

Doggie Doggie

A fren was saying that she has too much puppies. Her dog jus gave birth to a litter of puppies and she can’t keep all. So being me (the kiasu), I said “I wan I wan”. I alwiz wanted a puppy but my mom is a neat freak and she can’t stand any fur lying or flying around the hse. Heck, she even refrain me not to comb my hair in the living room & kitchen (can’t help it if my hair is wet and it’s time for dinner or my fav show is on TV, rite?). Furthermore, she was complaining tat my neighbors dog bark too much until it disturbs her sleeps.
So I told my mom, this dog dun bark a lot one but then she come out wif another excuse saying tat she wun haf time to look after the puppy when we are away working or away for vacation.
So can somebody come out wif a better excuse for me to use? I was thinking to buy a dog crate 1st (ngeh ngeh lai) and then it will be too late for her to object…but then again, it mite back fire and I mite haf wasted 100 bucks for the crate ….good excuse which works are welcome…

Phuket

I’m on a holiday spree….just got back from Phuket which was 1 mth after Siem Reap…..i’m more burnt then ever…

Day 1: Reach Phuket in the afternoon. After having a light lunch and checked in, we went to look for dive shops to book a dive trip for the next day…….At the same time, we booked for Thai massage to have a few bones cracked. We had seafood for dinner. I promised food-4-thot that I will take photos of the food that I have eaten to post it at her blog. Half way eating, I realize that I have not taken any pics yet…..so I took pics of the crayfish’s shells, a pot of empty tom yam gung, see ham shells (cockerels), and some fish bone.




Day 2: Woke up early in the morning to go for a 1 day dive to King Cruiser Wreck, Shark Point & Koh Doc Mai. Visibility was poor, especially in Shark Point & Koh Doc Mai. King Cruiser Wreck would be the best among the 3. You can actually dive inside a wreck…for a short distant, which was pretty kewl since this is the 1st time I do wreck diving. Did some wreck diving in Tioman but it wasn’t exactly wat u call a wreck dive since we jus circle the exterior of the ship. King Cruiser has lotsa scorpion & lion fishes.

Shark Point was disappointing. Y call it Shark Point when there were no sharks at all…? Manage to see the normal stuff like a giant pufferfish, a small school of barracudas, lotsa anemone fishes. 2 med size shrimps, lotsa yellow polka dot fishes (dunno wat u call tat), lotsa jellyfish,

Koh Doc Mai was equally disappointing. Saw a few jacks, a trumpet/ flute fish (too novice to distinguish the fishes apart). The rest is same-same.

Conclusion, dun dive in phuket. Go to Phi Phi island and take up the dive trips from there. Or go to Similan (jiao) to dive…..but best to dive there in Dec~April.

Had seafood again for dinner…and more empty shells & bones for food-4-thot. Went for bone cracking session again. It’s kinda scary after a while…tot my bones gonna give way…

Day 3: Went sailing from Phuket to Phi Phi island (overnite stay in Phi Phi). Pricey but how often do u get to sail anyway…..we got the whole boat to ourselves. The boat can stop where u wan it to be (for snorkel, dive, swim, pee in the water). Best part of all it has a hammock……Had sea sick halfway the journey. Sea was very choppy. Decided to rest on the dock & stare at the ocean and the sky….and…fell asleep….when I woke up, my name becomes Maya bt Ahak (blackie). Fug….it will take forever b4 I can become Chinese again.
Reached Phi Phi after 6 hrs on the sail boat. FYI, speed boat takes 45 mins. Ferry takes 1½ hrs to reach……


The hotel tat we booked in Phi Phi was nice but the service was poor or shud I say none at all…..very bad….no one smile at u, no one greet u. They even argue with us when we insist that we paid for a speedboat back to Phuket instead of taking the ferry. They even pull my frens’ t-shirt and challenge him for a fight…HARLO…we are paying customer. Show us a bit of respect la and where is the Thai courtesy & friendliness that Thailand has been promoting? Anyway, we lodge a police report at a police box (Box bcos it is small). Immediately they follow us back to the hotel to clear matters up. Tell u ar, after tat , the staff seem to b extra friendly…smile & greet u…..Our package spose to come with breakfast. But we decided not to eat there incase they put ‘things u dun wanna eat’ in our meals……I’m very tempted to post the hotel name here but….rather not incase of being sued. Will be more than happy to tell u the name if u ask me personally.

Day 4: Reached back to Phuket in the afternoon. Went for shopping and manage to buy a T-shirt with ‘same same but different’ printed on it. Ever since Siem Reap, I haf been using this phrase quite often….

Day 5: Groan…..holiday ended already?

Did u know that Phuket actually means ‘Bukit’

Me? in competition?

Fug…..wat haf I gotten myself into…..rock climbing competition??!!?? Apparently I started climbin like 3mths ago and my climbin kaki suggested tat we shud enter a mix team competition together…….i’m not exactly good…no strength, no endurance, no speed & no techniques….a recipe for failure & embarrassment I wud say….geez…

Well, lets put it this way. I dun mind joinin jus for the fun of it….but the idea thinking of all the pros there makes my knees goes weak….
It’s only less than a mth away from the competition……hmm….think I shud try??

Y can't $$ grow on trees

Another fren jus called recently to announce tat he will be getting married. Sigh…time passes by so quickly or r we jus growing up faster than we think? Seems like ystdy when I was still attending college, enjoying my carefree life. The biggest worry at that time was whether I’ll pass the exams. Now I have to worry will I be able to support my parents when they r old, provide food on the table when I haf my own family, whether my partner will outlive me and leave me alone, whether my condo will resume work again before the bank suck me off my $$ for interest, whether I haf enuf $$ to get a new car when my dad decides to retire permanently and demand his car back, whether I can afford for overseas holiday every yr :P ……

I’m not exactly an ambitious person. I dun intend to climb all the way up the corporate ladder joinin in the rat race, but at the same I wanna c myself improving & get promoted… I dun like routine but then I dun need to be mentally challenged all the time. (lei siong tim). I dun mind putting in extra hrs at work but I wanna be fairly rewarded. I need directions but I dun like to b limited on how I handle it…
Haih…..y can’t $$ just grow on trees……..

Beautiful Angkor

Just got back from Siem Reap, hence the delay in updating this blog..Spent 5D/4N there. Let me start here with saying that cars move less tha 40km/hr. You can ride a bicycle and reach a place same time as when u use a car .

i must say that the trip was an enjoyable one, though it was bloody hot. Think it was bout 37 degrees. Was sweating from morning till nite. First day, drop bags at hotel and went scouting ard for food in old town. Went to this place call Khmer Kitchen. They serve local Khmer food. Quite nice 'cept tat the dishes we ordered tasted sweet. Must be the pumpkins & MSG. Then found this place call Blue Pumpkin. I must say this is reccomendable...cool lounge upstairs. Nice white sheets which reminds me of hospital beds but it's kewl....

2nd day - I haf to wake my ass up to watch sunrise at angkor wat. Ass was still stuck on the bed. It's 4.30am...fug....driver spose to come & pick us up at 5.15am. Reach the main entry of angkor where we need to apply & pay US$40 for a 3 days pass. They took our photos and stick onto the pass....yikes...my eyes are still puffy....not enuf sleep. Spose to take pix of sunrise there.....mana tau the clouds were blockin the sun. Decided to proceed walkin since no more sunrise. 20 mins later, the sun decided to come out from hiding. KNS.....Spent bout 5-6 hrs in an angkor wat and decided tat we r too hungry to go anywhere else. Driver sent us back to hotel & pick us up 2 hrs later to go to angkor thom...legs already achin....Bayon is a must-go in angkor thom...no words can describe it..simply beautiful...Next we walk on till we reach Phimeanakas and later Terrace of Elephants. Took a few pics and off we continue to the next stop, Preah Khan. (Will need to figure out how to put in pics here). Anyway, by the end of the day, we had enuf of temples....Had our dinner at Red Piano. Its kinda pricey and it doesn't live up to my expections since some reviews actually rave bout this place.....nope. i wun go there again...

3rd day - Looking fwrd to Ta Phrom (where tomb raider was filmed) jus to take pics of the trees. 1st stop was in Bantreay Srei (pink temple). It was nice. But since i had an overdose of temples on the 2nd day, it doesn't seem as great as when u 1st c angkor wat. So its gd to know the Hindu religion/beliefs, since most of the cravings are based on that & it'll make u appreciate more of the temples ....Later went to Phreah Rup jus to snap some photos.....the phrase 'same-same but different' caught on....coz some temples actually looks the same but different in a way. Took some hit-&-run pics too at East Mebon. Last stop was Ta Phrom...the long awaited destination. Right....after tat, we had enuf of trees & temples, cos it's jus same-same, but different.............

4th day - Shopping day!! Haggle until i need to drink 2 packets of sugarcane mixed with orange & lemon...refreshing...and ...back to haggling...ooh...we had some nice baguette wif 3 types of meat in it and top it of wif some kerabu cucumbers...yummy....I actualy bought a bikini in a place where there are no beaches.....We were offered a free dinner by a shop owner. We had breakfast there on our way to central mkt. His shop was selling some local noodles in the morning. It was cheap compared to some other places & food is good. We licked our bowls clean. The owner must be happy seeing this & came over our table and said "come dinner. Free free". mmm....free sounds good. Anyway, we were surprise that he gave each of us a claypot filled with beef's abdomen & some other spare parts. Tot he's giving us only 1 pot and we can order something else....ok, it wasn't as good as in the morning. The soup need more beef taste. Later he told us tat his shop is open only for 2 days and wanted to find ways to improve his cooking......so there, us = guinea pigs...but i'm not complaining....After dinner wanted to rush back hotel to catch 'Lost' on AXN. Ta pao a few local beers & wine coolers from a convenient shop and we are all set to watch 'Lost'. Did i mentioned that beer is as cheap as US$0.65-US$1.00 for a can? For more food adventures in Siem Reap, http://food-4-thot.blogspot.com

5th day - balik kampung...oh woh....balik kampung....no flight delay...sunburnt & tired.
Funny thing is, ppl haf been telling me tat for 1st timers to cambodia, we r bound to get diarrhoea. But i guess i've trained my stomache well....

My first blog

After reading a couple of blogs over the internet, it got me thinking that maybe i shud start my own blog as well. Some may say, u got anything else better to do ar? so much free time ar? well...i'm not exactly tat free, but at least i get to pen down my thoughts...be it some BS, complaints or some inner thoughts. i'm just too lazy to pick up a pen a write it in a diary. So there u r, my first ever blog.......

U must be wondering y i name my blog 'last-of-the-dragon'. Well as a matter of fact, my family name is indeed dragon in chinese. Hmm...y last of the dragon? Mom & dad only had me & sis. So we can't possbily carry down the family name since we r gals. The only hope is my 2 older guy cousins, which till now there r still single. Dun get me wrong, i'm not trying to offer any matchmaking servces. In the mean time, i consider the so-call dragon legacy ends at my generation....which can be a pity. I kinda like my family name......