Batam Getaway

Sometimes a simple getway with frens over simple board games and eating can recharged your spirit. We should do this more often.

The Big Three @ Phuket Rawai

Morning sun greeted me at 8am. What a good rest! Serendipity lived up to it's name. We were served a sumptuous spread of intercontinental breakfast. Nice table set up with little cute cutlery and pottery.Food was aesthetically displayed. Light lounge music was played. The place is so quiet and serene. I felt time has slowed down a little .

11am :Moving on to another chapter today and celebrating it at phuket .Naiham beach is beautiful. The green waves and the clear cirrus clouds lightened me up. We rode the waves and dived in the sea water. I was in heaven with the sea water bubbling in my ears. There were a lot of things I hope to do before turning thirty such as having a kid but I guess god has it own timing and I should learn to be content with what I have and learn to treasure my time to enjoy the present .

4.30pm: While waiting for the minibus to fetch us back to the hotel, Hubs and I sat at the beach to have some silly fun.Snaping pictures, watching the dogs and talking about why the caucasians like to date petite thai asian girls

5.30pm:
Before having a good soak in the bathtub, we decided to laze around in the balcony,just to enjoy the good space and the nice nature. Be still. That's a nice feeling to have.

8pm: We went back to the same local restaurant that we had yesterday to buy dinner and went back to our apartment to enjoy a quiet dinner. No fancy dinner or blowing the candles on the cake. Just Hubs and I with a bowl of tom yam, green curry, morning glory and grilled chicken for just $20 dollars.

12 June 2011
7am: Woke up to enjoy the breakfast.The same feeling of peace and tranquility. Have a little walk in the garden before hitting the pool to swim a few laps. Then laze around in the nice chairs to enjoy our last hour before we bade farewell to Serenpity and our wonderful accomodation. I really had a good time and will definitely be back again, hopefully with a little bud.

Eagles Concert

Alright,my first concert in Madison Square Garden !Eagles Rock! Crowd was definitely different,I am almost one of the youngest there!But they were so good that i wished I had learn guitar and jammed their songs. Gosh,so good...and sad to say, my camera ran out of battery and I managed to find some videos online which were very close to the one I am attending.Enjoy Desparado and Hotel Califonia...Don Henley Rocks!

Spring 2008 in NYC

He was here for a week in the city!!I am so elated after three months of not seeing him. I am like recharged in the arms of love, soaring freely like an eagle,and zesty like a lemon. New York City is even more perfect with him around. We simply lazed around the Central Park for almost few days of the week, marveling at the cherry blossoms, oogling at the hot joggers around the Charles Dana,listening to the jazz band playing in the greens and just simply enjoying the warm weather!!I love Spring. Central Park is so beautiful...Alright back to mugging.another 2 days to go before I am free and start my summer vacation!!

A hike in somewhere near Paterson,NJ

Young was kind enough to invite us to his house for his birthday party. We had a huge barbeque with party games and a group hike out in the woods!!I missed the fresh air so much!!I am a country girl for sure...

November

November is still a trying time. Not much news from recruiter even though the man is still under the payroll of the bank. It’s a bad timing in the financial market during this period of time and the hiring is kinda of slow at the end of the year. The Lows were terribly stressed. One with school work and balancing all the responsibilities of a wife. The other with work and career. To make things worse, there was a small minor accident with the car and the Lows had to handle all the traffic tickets and insurance coverage. When things seemed to be going in haywire, you knew god always give you a ray of hope to hang on. First he was gracious through the supportive cell group who had been so encouraging and fervent in their prayers for the Lows. Second, the man and woman’s friends and alumni had been expressing concern and support and had been really sincere to help to reach out to whatever contacts they had. Thirdly, the Low’s family had been just so supportive spiritually. Well, those loving, caring relationships were what kept the Lows sane for this month. You still see them with smiles because they had reached a point when they knew that everything was temporal and transient but what most important was friends and family who stood by you when you were in trouble. Life was certainly as such , isn’t it. The Lows knew that things were pretty out of their own control and they had learned what “total submission” meant at this point of their life. Only the almighty God could make what seemed impossible to be possible now. As such, despite nothing concrete has happened, the Lows decided to continue to trust that the Lord would provide. They continue to do their best and still make an effort to have some small gatherings over at their place for some dinner at times. Life still has to go on for the Lows. They went to Boston for a Thanksgiving and had a good break in that little quaint city for a few days. The woman also went to a church retreat at the ski resort over the last weekend. The Lows kept on praying but of course like all other human beings, sometimes, their flesh gave in to worry and doubt. This was indeed a tough battle to fight.

SC from TC

Third entry in a day. Forgive me. Too many thoughts going through today.
Met up with the professor in TC.Gosh. Enlightening. Heart-warming. SC is just such a dear mentor. Said things which probe you to think more.
Striking a balance pursuing your passion and other parts of your life like your husband and children.
Be practical with money matters and stay open and welcome any opportunities which come along the way.
Staying focus and delighting in the work you are doing.
Things may change in your course of your life and embrace changes.
Treat every work you do as learning opportunity.
Take a step to try and you never know what is lying ahead.
There are always way out. No dead end.
I am glad I met such a helpful and patient professor.

Silent of the night

Journaling from NYC right now.I have so much mixed feelings today about the city. Driving towards the BIG APPLE was exciting initially. NEW YORK...here i come...Yes, in two months time, this will be the place where I will be living for the next few years. I love the energy of this place , the endless bustling activities which run through the wee hours of the night, the rich and diverse population living here but I can't stand the dirtiness, the rats running across the streets, the old run down buildings and METROs, the sirens of NYPDs.Verdict?Unknown.Leave it up to God to provide and protect.
My brain was tuned to " high alert" automatically whenever I stepped into this city. It is pretty safe as compared to the 1970s but the usual blursotong me will be super alert in this city whenever I walked along the streets.So not me. Eyes will be roaming, to ensure that no one was following me, no one is trying to get near to me to rob me or any weird people trying to be funny with me. Don't let me scare you. Things are not as bad here.In fact, is pretty safe. I am just too use to COUNTRY LIVING now.The SIMPLE way of life in Durham. I am a COUNTRY mouse and not a CITY mouse. Every New Yorker seemed to be so strong ,so tough, so shrewd and so independent, not people you want to mess with. I am just stereotyping,so take what i say with a pinch of salt. Of course , there will be nice people out there, somewhere in the city,someone who just want to be SIMPLE like me. I just need to meet them to make my life even happier. PRAY.TRUST.OBEY.
This is a highly competitive city. The hungry, the driven,the talented ones from all over the world will try to make a mark here. Both of us came here by chance, by god given opportunities. We thank god for it because we knew there are new things for us to learn, new things for us to explore and definitely a new chapter in our lives.We gonna come out stronger after these few years, taking away valuable lessons God wants us to learn.Is exciting in a way. We said to each other" it will be colorful like the rainbow".
Interestingly, despite the hustle and bustle of the city, it made you even more contemplative about what was going on and what will happen.Anchoring and keeping true to yourself and God.I like this feeling. Contemplative. And pening my thoughts in the middle of the night in one small apartment at Wall Street. Off.

Good training

I must pen this down!I drove the longest distance ever in my life for the first time.And the first time in torrential heavy rain which blurred my vision that I could not even see a single thing in front of me. Scary , isn't it? A new driver driving in such terrible conditions.
The rain came unexpectedly when we were in Richmond, three hours after the sunshine weather in North Carolina.Caught me off guard...but the daredevil side of me wanted to challenge myself to overcome this. I was already having butterflies in my stomach. Of course with some secret prayers and 100% concentration , I managed to brave through this ordeal and arrived safely with my hubba!!!
Gosh, I hope after this trip, i will be a better driver!

Snowshoe Mountain!

I suppose is time i need to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone. Last three days were whole lots of adrenalin pushing. The speed was amazing. I used to like that but now i will prefer slow and easy something like golf. Is interesting how I used to like skiing. The speed excites me ,rejuvenates me but now it made me fear. What has gone wrong? Risk adverse? Less adventurous? Age catching up?Every little steep slope was a hurdle for me. Well, no one around to help except Ron who was way ahead of me. The rest was snowboarding!

I paused at one of the steep slope.Everyone went down the slope.I was hesitating. I was afraid. I waited there like the night will come. I knew i needed to overcome this.I knew I need to be a overcomer in order to see a brighter future over this slope. I prayed.I took a deep breathe and wheeee....I swayed from one end to the other end, like a graceful swan dancing on a pond.I wasn't wobbling but you can see that my legs were trying hard to control the speed. It was way too fast for me!

I was glad I overcome it. I gave a small invisible pat on myself and thought: " Isn't life suppose to be like this? You can't just stop trying because you are afraid. Sometimes, you just need to be an overcomer. "

It was a love hate relationship with me and the skis. I love the way the sport challenge myself to go beyond my limits but I also hated it because I have to be fast.

Snowshoe was a fantastic place. You felt like you stepped into a little garden of eden. The weather was great. The drive was scenic.The cabin was cosy. And more importantly, the crowd was great!!Nothing beats to have a fun rock holiday with a group of friends!

More Pictures here

Morocco- Marrakech and the Sahara Expedition

Morocco is the most exciting place I ever went. It is terrific and it marked the first country in North Africa which I went. Morroco is definitely my most perfect destination for travel!! We could have enjoyed the trip more but both of us were down with severe cold ( have not recovered from Czec) and hence our first day after 4 hours flight from London was spent in the Moroccan Hotel. On the second day, we plucked ourselves to get out into the streets and managed to just hang aroung and booked for our tour to the Sahara. Marrackesh has been the capital of Morocco , as well as for smaller countries up through history.One of the most interesting place was the Jamaa L-Fnaa Square where you get to see snake charmers, interesting water bag man and storytellers till the wee hours of the night .In the evening, the street stalls would begin to march in and enticed you with the sweet aroma of the Moroccan dishes.Of course, even though i was sick, i was pigging out in the street stalls ,drunk myself in the orange juice stalls and got energised when i started my shopping in the suuq. Super cheap!!!And I love all those gypsie styled dresses, bags,baskets,jewellery and slippers!! The true adventure really began the next day when we hopped on to our 4x4 minivan to begin our Sahara Expedition with four other couples.

From Marrakech to Ait Benhadou: Visit of the Kasbashs

It's going to take us 2 days to reach the desert but along the journey, we will be stopping to visit various sites. The first one is Ait Benhadou. It has one of the most exotic and best-preserved Kasbahs in the entire Atlas region since it has money powered into it as a result if of being used for scenes in as many as 20 films, notably " Laurence of Arabia" and more recently the" Gladiator.It is now under Unesco Protection. The winding mountainous road made us almost puke ( remember we were sick) but all were worthwhile as we were greeted by the beautiful Atlas Mountains .....

And getting to wind through little settlements in the desert which I think none of us will get used to staying in them. Amazing structures with packed hay, grass and cement.
The familiar scene you saw in the movies.....the preserved Kasbahs
You will see these little ones trying to earn some Dirhams by assisting you to cross some rivers and probably giving you some handmade crafts which you maybe fooled to pay.But they are harmless and in fact some are really adorable and just love to tag along by your side. Many times in my trip, I will get to see many small kids and adoloscents hanging around and I wonder if they ever receive some proper education.

This is such a common sight you will get to see in Morroco. I fell in love with the donkeys after this trip. They were simply one of the mildest, painstaking and industrious animals on this earth. Check out this .

We headed to Quarzazate for our lunch. Quarzazate is a pretty quiet and nondescipt place,it's especially noteable because it is the starting point of the excursions in the desert. It is also well-known for its Studios of Cinema and its large Kasbah Taourit ( The structure at the background in the photograph below)

Thereafter, we continue our journey and made our way to the Dades Valley which threads its course between the mountains of the high Atlas to the North and rugged Jbel Saghro range to the south.The biggest oasis and the line of the Kashbahs that give this route its nickname " Valley of thousand Kasbahs", begin just before the town of Skoura.Here, we spent our night in a hotel which got us frozen. Both Ronald and I couldn't even bother to bathe and wrapped ourselves in the thick blankets which hardly provided wamth.

The next day , we woke up . And after a Berber Breakfast meal, we began to trudge through the fertile palmeraies of the Draa which are crammed with date palms, olive and almond groves. Mid way, we were being led to a Kasbah where the Berbers stayed. None of us understood what's going on as the guide was not English speaking. Luckily, a Latino saved our day and began to explain us. As we followed the guide, we were unknowingly led to family which made carpets ( Basically they are the ones who sold to retailers in marrakech who charged exhorbitant rates for the carpets we saw)!!! And yes, all of us began to make eyes with each other to signal we have fallen into a tourist trap!!!!But nevertheless, we were all patient and waiting to see what the man is up to in his sleeves. Gosh, don't be fooled by these people , thinking they were some uneducated and uncivilised tribal people.They were excellent businessman. He spoke fluent English and he was " hospitable " and served us mint tea ( by the way, this is a tradition to receive guest). After that, he began rattling and we had a mini educational talk on the Berbers and the culture and values. We learned Berber language from him as well. So after the while, the true self revealed but yet he did it in such a way that we did not feel compelled to buy. And all of us agreed that his carpets were truely genuine, handmade, durable and nicely designed ( the carpets were only made by the females and each symbol on the carpet has some significance of blessing ,good health and stuff like that) Of course, we did not reveal our interest that we want to buy. While he was gone to bring us some carpets, we decided to devise a strategy - collective bargaining!!!Haha, yes the more the better bargaining power we had!!! And guess what , who was the best bargainer? Me? No way, i am bad at this. If i can reduce the price by 5 dollars , i will be in heaven. is my BABY!!! I am so proud of him. According to the rest of the group who could not stop praising him for his assertiveness and bargaining power after the whole experience, Baby eventually reduced the four carpets which we bought by 50 %. Well, I mean we bought one and the rest of them belonged to the other couples.One carpet expert in the group said we have paid a reasonable price for ours and it was definitely worthwhile. I felt comforted eventually coz i thought we have spent too much. Anyway, if you get to visit us and get to see the carpet, you will know how it was bought and the interesting journey behind it.:P

We also saw the cultivation of coucous ( Morrocan main dish ) and mint leaves which was served basically in most of our meals. Most of the time, we would also have tajines ( the name for a conical kinda cooking vessel and Morrocan recipes). The tajines were delicious but it can get quite boring after a while. They are also famous for their omelettes. Check out the spread we have during one of our lunch break below.

About 50km south of Erfoud is the tiny village of mergouga and nearby is the famous Erg Chebbi, it is a totally magical landscape which deserves much more than just a sunrise glimspe.And yes, we have eventually reached the highlight of our tour!!!This is part of the Sarhara desert where dunes themselves are fascinating,changing color from pink to gold toured at different times of the day. It is a great place to appreciate the immense, clear desert sky. Everybody was so exhilarated!!!

I could not tell you how beautiful the desert is. You got to really expereince it yourself. I wish I could spend a few more days in the desert and lived a nomadic life with the Berbers.The Sahara is vast,quiet and serene. A perfect romantic getaway for couples who wished to spend their time under the tent, gazing at the stars and if you are lucky, get to spot a lucky shooting star. Of course, not forgetting the fun camel riding which got us all amused. We spent about 1.5 hours riding to our campside,marvelling at the beautiful sunset. The camels are real adorable and yes very interesting. My camel kept throwing out white and gluish liquid. I asked my guide if he was sick and he said it was their saliva!!!I had lots of video clips of me mounting up the camels which was totally hilarious and would be uploaded soon.

There were really nothing much to do at the night. Since Baby was sick, I bravely went with the gals to climb the dunes in the dark. Gosh, that was tiring . The dunes were steep and each step we took, our feet sank deeply into the sand. Who knows if there were scorpians lurking around? ( but we heard there were more of them in winter)We practically couldn't bother much and just want to make it to the top to catch a glimspe of the view. And guess what, we finally made it but only to realise that over the other side were numerous sand dunes. We could not make it to another one and decided to do a ' sand slide ' down the dunes. And so, baby took a picture of me and Judy( the aussie babe) while we were having fun tumbling down the dune.heheh.

And so after this rigorous exercise, the group was worn out and we eventually brought out our thick blankets and wriggled ourselves around the campfire , enjoying the free music entertainment and story telling given by our guides. We were going to prepare ourselves for the moon-rise. ( yes , we get to see moonrise, sunrise and sunset). i wish i bought myself a more powerful camera but unfortunately my canon ixus couldn't really take the beautifully lited full moon rising from the horizon. The night was simply spectacular and unforgettable. i am so thankful that i got to spend it with my Babe. Truely, it reminded me how mighty the lord is. i marveled at his beautiful creation,thinking if this is exactly how the night looked like when Jesus is born.Somehow, i drifted into my dreamland. I guess Ron probably carried me back to the tent.And the only thing i could remember hearing was the faint "Berrrr" noises made by the camels who were sleeping just outside our tents.

Morocco is simply magical.:)

Czec Republic: 26th-31 December 2006

Well, just to back track to my Czec Republic trip during the last week of December.
It was pure fun and jolly. I visited my Czec friend, Slossy whom I met like 4 years ago in the states. He has kindly hosted us during our 5 days in Czec Republic.
As usual, he has never failed me as an ever so reliable and dependable guy. He got our itinery settled for us . Hence, we felt so relaxed during our whole trip- a good break from our Spain trip as our meals and acccomodation were all take care of.

With a local as our tour guide,we were lucky that we hardly get lost in our driving except the third day when we took a train out to Prague alone.Slossy knew his country's history very well and everyday he would flood us with endless information about each historical site we went to. I must say I have a better understanding of the European history, particularly the war history now.Ron who is an avid reader of war history knew quite a fair bit which allowed him to interact with Slossy more. Phew..so I just left the guyz talking and I quietly enjoyed the scenary throughout our tours.

The highlights of the trip mainly includes:
1) getting our lazy bums out in the mountains ( which we thorougly enjoyed as we experienced our first " Snow hike" together. We drove past the Germany border to do this!!!And of course, because we are Chinese, we spent more time than anybody else to clear the custom.Luckily, Slossy was super savvy enough to speak to the Germans in English and hence urghem...they decided to cut the hassle by speaking to us in English and let us go!!:))

2) Train rides with the locals which we enjoyed . We got to observe how countrylife was like. We heard so much about Prague. But I guess Czec Republic is more than just Prague. Away from this crowd attracting city, was a beautiful mountaineous landscape in the other parts of the country. More often, you will still get to see remnants of the 2nd world war and communistic era. Interestingly, these buildings, objects and way of life made Czec an attractive place to visit because there are so much culture and history to learn. There were tons of castles which we unfortunately could not get to go in as they were closed during Winter. Dear ron was disappointed.

3) But nevertheless, he was pleased ultimately by the widespread of Czec crusines which we got to try. We bugged Slossy to bring us to places where the locals go. So we got to taste all kinds of Czec food- Christmas Dinner with carp(prepared by sloss),the dumplings ( Not at all like our jiao zi or bah zang) ,goulaus, the sweet and sour red cabbage dish,the plum wine and Czec beer. Sweet Marcela ( Slossy's gf) prepared several homecooked dishes for us as well. This woman amazed me !!I told Slossy to marry her. She can bake and do handicraft very well. She can literally start her own shop!!!I love her personality. Even though she was down with cold, she was still so hospitable!!!Oh yah, did I not tell you that we went to this cool restaurant in Prague where Napolean was there!!!Cool place with long tables held out in true European beerhall style and lively music from the musicians playing the accordians.Of course, the menu was traditional Czec food which filled us to the brim!

4) Spa biscuits and Spa town-Karlovy vary!!!. Totally fascinated by the spa town. I do not know why it is called spa town but I guess there were lots of hot springs in these areas. I bought this cute little flask which I could use to store the spring water as we hopped from one Spring to another. The water from these springs were believed to have medicinal value and proven beneficial to health. Many rich Russians simply flew in to receive treatment for various diseases and hence you could probably meet more Russians than Czecs in this place. Ron chickened out and did not dare to try the spring water . Slossy and I were happily slurping the warm spring water. Though it has a sulphuric ,runny taste of a rotten egg, I must say I pretty enjoy it. I guess i am just too caught up in the belief that these spring water will make you more radiant and pretty !! Asides from this experience, I saw a few places which were shot in Casino Royale!!!Remember my Daniel Craig!!!!Gosh, in the movie, those places were supposed to be in Montgomery!!

5) Czec movies on Slossy's desktop!!Guess what??Ron and I got hooked and we asked for more!!According to Slossy, most Czec films were mainly based on war or the communistic era ,if not some famous people. It is hard to get funding to produce a movie.

5) And of course, let's not forget the post christmas sale shopping in Prague. I bought myself a pair of boots and a Zara overcoat.The beautiful Charles Bridge, the Prague castle, the clock, the Jewish Synagague,the old and new town and etc... Prague truely lives up to its name.

Thanks Slossy and Marcela for being such great hosts!Ron and I really enjoyed our stay and we hope we can be as hospitable as you guyz when both of you visited us in Singapore or the States.

p/s: Unfortunately, i seemed to have misplaced the disc which Slossy has kindly burned our travel pictures in Czec. They will be uploaded soon!!