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 =)

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…

the bucket list - skydiving

i crossed out one of the entries in my big list of things to do before i die.

its a long long list. and truthfully, this is one of the only achievable things at the moment. the idea first came upon me when my elder brother did one in sydney, and came again after watching flo rida’s ‘wild ones’ video. so when my housemate announced that she was leaving dubai; we decided that this was one thing that we needed to do before she left. so we booked ourselves 2 spots in skydive dubai for a tandem skydive.

from the very start things were just so quick that i barely had any time at all to process any feelings that came to me. once we signed in a guy on a cam started video-ing me as the intro, then my tandem skydiver strapped me up and began explaining what i should be doing during the jump. basically 2 things; smile and be a banana. meaning arch my body upways like a banana and do nothing like a banana.

next thing we know, we’re walking up towards this little propeller plane, my partner asking if i’m ready, my heart’s pumping like mad while i’m smiling to her saying yes lets do this. we climbed up to 13,000ft, her pointing to the view outside, but really who the fark leisurely enjoys the view when you know you’re jumping off the plane next.

oh my, crazy doesn’t even begin to describe how it felt. i just remember screaming and screaming and screaming the moment we jumped out. and after a few seconds of that i remembered i was being videotaped so i started to attempt some cool gesture shots. what an epic fail. freefalling makes its really really hard to move ANYTHING when you’re up in the air. i had to use every single little ounce of muscle i had to make a tiny effort of hand, arm or facial movements! it didn’t really feel like i was flying really, it felt more like a continuous fall that would never end.

it was really enjoyable for me. i was more excited during the entire experience more than afraid. lots of people naturally imagine what happens if the parachute doesn’t deploy, what if my tandem jumper faints in mid air (lol!). but seriously, they jump on an average of 8 times a day. if something does go wrong, that will be my fate then. HAHA.

after a few seconds of falling you get used to the feeling. and start enjoying the view, as if falling was so natural and you don’t think about it. at a certain height my tandem diver deploys the parachute and adjusts the straps to make us more comfortable.

then she pops a question; “you like roller coasters?”

me: “i love them!”

and she starts twirling us around like a little puppet. omg that beat any roller coasters i’ve ridden in my life. after a few seconds of intense g-force,squealing, laughing and god knows what, i had tears in my eyes and had to tell her to stop.

it was a perfect landing. =) no wobbly knees or fainting spells. more like a happy wide-eyed kid who just got out of the best ride of her life. the whole experience was so quick and mind-blowing i didn’t really feel much. nor had time to think about it.

it costs AED1750 / ~USD475 for a tandem dive including still photos and a video. in total the jump probably lasted only a couple of minutes but the whole experience took probably about 2 hours including waiting time.

if i had the chance, i’d definitely do it again. just maybe somewhere else =)

sri lanka pt.II

i managed to grab a shot over maldives out of the cabin window. i reckon in the future, we’d have airplanes with massive viewing windows just so everyone could gap in awe with such beauty.

Now what comes into mind when one speaks of sri lanka? the tropics? coconut tress and sweet pineapples? buddhist temples? succulent seafood? ceylon tea? we practically touched base on all of them.

Once we landed in colombo, we rushed out to King Coconut restaurant in Negombo. Its a favourite among the crew; not only because its close enough to the hotel, but also because it has great seafood at low prices by the beach. Prices start at about Rs800/6USD for a main course of seafood choice (prawns, fish, etc) with rice. How cheap is that! Considering this was proper al fresco dining by the beach! We however opted to eat in style and went for the fresh seafood platter; costing Rs2780 / USD21. Prices differ everyday depending on the day’s catch, but its generally within that price range.

The platter was huge, depending on your appetite, it was enough to feed 2 with more to spare. The seafood was really really fresh; it had king prawns and shrimps, a whole crab, cray fish, calamari and other random pieces of fish. on the side of fried rice, salad and a sweet chilli dipping sauce. It was divine! Alot of restaurants in Malaysia import seafood from Sri Lanka; after tasting this, i now knew how different fresh seafood could be.

What better to accompany the food with their local beer; Lion (Rs500 / USD3.80 a bottle). I’m not particularly a big beer drinker but it certainly went well with the seafood. However after a few bottles, everyone got really happy drunk and started ordering more ‘Tiger’ beer. tiger.. lion.. elephants… the animals people name after their beer.

anyways dessert was banana fritters (Rs350 / USD2.70) which everyone loved except me. maybe it was because i’d much prefer the ones from malaysia that had sweeter bananas and a lighter and fluffier batter. this one was dense but still very crispy.

We could not be bothered to take a cab to the city the next day, so we decided to look around the neighbourhood. We got honked by the cars, trucks, tricycles. Peered into people’s houses. And then we came across a lovely catholic church within the lush greens. It was a nice change to view a modest church compared to the large dominating ones in europe.

Then came my next favourite thing to do on every trip; scavenging for unknown groceries. The area still had a lot of little vegetable stores like these; and it was fun to discover new vegetables in different colours and sizes.

 a bread tricycle! it zipped past me before i could stop and get my fluffy soft bread.

 old school soft drinks. i used to drink from these bottles with a straw when i was little and kept the bottlecaps. seeing them again brought back many childhood memories.

a friend once laughed at me for being so amazed at international grocery shopping. but let me show you my haul from colombo. clockwise from top right; colombo red raw rice (healthy much!); bananas (wasn’t as sweet as the Pisang Mas that i love from Malaysia); cute tiny watermelons!; colombo pineapples (after having these, nothing else will compare to its juiciness and sweetness); large avocado (it took forever to ripen) and papaya. ALL FOR Rs300 / USD2.30! what a steal!