this blog is finally closed.

in the mean time, check out my portfolio site to find my works. and even if you don't click on my pretty link, i'm gonna transfer you automatically in say; 5 seconds with the magic of scripting.

Cape Town, South Africa pt.II waterfront

We woke up early to  visit the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront; unfortunately we missed the free shuttle from the hotel to the harbour. This actually turned out to be a good thing as under the blue skies and lovely weather we took a 20 minute leisure walk absorbing the sights along the way.

Honestly i love this beautiful city! Now to get my penthouse + mini yacht for my weekend home…

 

The V&A Waterfront is partially built on top of the docks of the Port of Cape Town where ships still do enter and leave. On the way we caught the site where Les Miserables shot it’s opening scene. What a contrast as the scene was so dark, gloomy and intimidating while the sun was shinning brightly into it that day. And of course i couldn’t resist fooling around in front of Elliot; the sitting Coca Cola man. Towering at 18m high; its completely made of 4200 coca cola crates! If you’re as curious as I am on how it holds up; its hollow inside where a metal framework is housed…

 

We were lucky as the Food Market was open (Wednesdays to Sundays 0930 – 1930) so we popped in for some sensory curiosity. If was filled with cute stalls of Biltong (very South African! its dried cured meat ranging from beef to game meats), chocolates, hungarian chimney cakes, argentinian empanadas etc.

Further down was the actual wharf filled with shopping and nice eatery areas. Truthfully the vibe was very similar to the waterfront of Sydney; with loads of activities along the wharf and people just soaking up the sun.

 

A local crew recommended Quay 4 for their delicious burgers; however as it was a bustling Sunday we were greeted with a long queue. We couldn’t be bothered to wait so we headed upstairs to the chain restaurant of Ocean’s Basket. Ordered the calamari 3 ways this time; grilled, deep fried and chilli calamari for R83.50/USD10.

Good fresh cheap seafood = happy me. Add beautiful weather to a beautiful city with awesome company; I really couldn’t ask for more.

Cape Town, South Africa pt.I Camps Bay

There’s a thing called the swap shop among the cabin crew. You go online to this application and with 2 willing crew, they could swap duties; the destinations they wanted to go to on conditions that it was legal (flying legalities are a whole complex issue, with calculations so that each crew gets enough off days and rest in between flights).

My first duty swap was a Kuala Lumpur flight to Cape Town in South Africa. Now this will be my first time to the African continent and boy was i excited. Till now my image of Africa are lions calmly munching on silly tourists in safaris and Shakira singing WakaWaka (. . . she’s not even from the African continent to begin with…)

table mountain. say ‘oooo’ with me

Now Cape Town is apparently Africa’s most popular tourist destination; and its famous for its harbour and Table Mountain. This table mountain majestically surrounds the city; almost hugging it in a tight pocket, and its so BIG, FLAT and IN-YOUR-FACE that you could see it when standing anywhere in the city. I was excited to get up onto the mountain as soon as we landed.

However the weather wasn’t favourable for a ride up to the mountain, so we took a cab to camps bay for dinner instead. Yea you need clear blue skies to enjoy it. If you’re covered in clouds blocking every view, whats the point? Anyway Camps Bay is a quick 15 minute ride from the city centre; costing about R120/USD13 one way. Its a hip eatery area and has pretty cool bars overlooking the beach.

check out the ominous clouds hanging about…

 

What happened to my tourist munching lions and african drums? HAHA so i had the wrong impression. Cape Town is famous for their seafood and wines. We popped into one of the beachfront restaurants and got ourselves a platter of kingklip and king prawns for R90/USD10 each. They were really fresh and simply grilled without any fancy-smancy herbs or chilli filled sauces which personally was great because it brought out the natural sweetness of the prawns! Local seafood to try in Cape Town if you ever do get the chance to; yellowtail, cape salmon, kingklip, kabeljou, mussels, oysters, prawns. =)

MIA updates

So let me do a quick summary of what has happened in my last 4 months. Some of it would warrant a post of their own (or more); which i will get to it some point in the future. But bear with me. I procrastinate waaaayyy too much.

December

• went to the African continent for my very first time to Cape Town; South Africa

• celebrated my 23rd (ahem) birthday both in Dubai and Malaysia. Thank you for those who celebrated with me; i’m so thankful to have you in my life.

• got dedicated since coming to Dubai; i was eating right and healthy while working out every other day. Lost a considerable amount of weight, had to get a new wardrobe and felt my bestest.
• celebrated christmas in Dubai with an Australian, Spanish, South African and Italian; where we joined hands and i said grace for the very first time.

• celebrated New Years Eve at the sandance, Atlantis, Dubai. Watched Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora, Zane Lowe and Paul van Dyk. This was meant to be an epic night due to what was planned, but fell short. Nevertheless under the fireworks, it was a night to remember.

 

January

• visited Lagos, Nigeria where we ventured out when everyone told us not to

• visited Zurich, Switzerland, where it was really too cold for me to enjoy the city.

 

• watched Swedish House Mafia in Malaysia. Enjoyed massively but paid for it after.

  

February

• went home to Malaysia for the cultural celebration of Chinese New Year, celebrated, ate too much and gained back all that weight i worked 4 whole months to lose

 

• visited Casablanca, Morocco; my very first time to a Mediterranean destination

• despite being in a country of nice beaches for the last 8 months; actually went for a beach therapy for the very first time in Dubai

 

March

• had a week’s vacation in Melbourne; catching up with old friends

• visited Brisbane; sunshine state of Australia

• visited Singapore; fooled around like a kid in Universal Studios Singapore and like an adult in the Marina Bay Sands Casino

 

• finally went for a desert safari in the middle east

• visited Newcastle in the UK; shopped like a mad woman in Primark and got put into an arabian themed room in the hotel. Imagine my horror/astonishment as i opened the door to this view… felt like they put me into a love motel! you think i’d be sharing this with someone tonight?? HAHAHA

 

April

• went on an unplanned impromptu solo trip to Cyprus (very much of a story!)

• 12 hours later visited Washington DC in the USA! my very first destination to the United States!

 

Yes i had a lot of firsts in the past months. Looking back, the amount of travel i did feel pretty crazy; yet its been an experience of a lifetime =)

Live.Laugh.Love

If anyones wondering whether im still alive in this world; i am. Life threw me into an emotional roller coaster ride (as always no?) and truthfully i could not be in the mood to do anything much less write. Most of the time it was a mixed state of confusion, self loathing, conflicting complications, unnecessary self-induced stress and more confusion.

While it would be personally highly embarrassing and inappropriate to share with the public world what exactly it was about, i'll let you know how a dutch ex-actor yoga teacher snapped me out of it. If you didnt know already, i am especially fond of dutchies since my student exchange days 2 years back. Now all my dutch friends are polite joint smoking fun loving people; so meeting an ashram-going meditating yoga teacher was sorta out of the norm.

10minutes of conversation was all he needed to diagnose me with a disease of modern day denial of self happiness. Oh it was easily curable; just mix a slap in the face, a stab in the chest followed by the unstoppable flow of tears gushing out of the eyes (overdramatic of course; its just symbolic but you can imagine how it felt like).

C'est la vie. There's a reason why things are the way they are. You've got a great life; and even if you think its insignificant, you're making a real difference in people's lives. So why not just live in the moment instead of worrying about the future.

manchester

i requested for Kuala Lumpur flights last month, hoping they would give me one to see my family and friends back home. to my dismay/delight, they gave me 4. i just wanted ONE DAMMIT. too much of something is never good. my point of being here is to see different destinations, not to go home every weekend!

anyways, funnily enough, they took me off my KUL-MEL-KUL flight for visa issues into australia, and another one got replaced with manchester in the UK instead. it’s been awhile since i visited the UK so i was frankly quite delighted by the roster change.

we got put into this cute little hotel near the airport; which red bricks and verandah walkways; and because christmas was coming, filled with decor for the celebration spirit.

now we couldn’t miss the chance to visit the city, but we had to take a short train ride from the airport to piccadilly station. a male crew and i considered going to the old trafford stadium; him for his interest in football, me just to make my MU-fan friends envious. HAHA.

In the end we decided against it, as we shopped at PRIMARK for close to 2 hours; we couldn’t be bothered to find our way out of the city into old trafford. Primark is cheap as hell but with good quality stuff! *love love love* consisting of 3 whole floors they stock everything fashionable from dresses to nighties, winterwear, accessories and homewares. 2 hours was not enough. i did not even manage to look into the shoes or bag section!

 travel buddies for the day; (L-R) nina from south africa, leide from brazil and humberto from mexico

by the time we were finished with primark and urban outfitters, we were tired and most importantly hungry. so we headed into one of the many bustling bars for some traditional english grub. now since it was nearing christmas, we managed to visit part of the christmas markets along exchange street selling all kinds of things from tree ornaments, cupcakes and other local crafts.

a pity we did not follow the snake like market till the end to albert square which was considered the main highlight. we were just far too cold and could not be bothered. thus ends my 24 hours in manchester! it was nice to visit the city during christmas for it’s festivities.

 

on another note; i have got christmas and new year’s eve off in dubai. now what am i going to do in a desert during such times when all my friends are flying off to somewhere for celebrations…