My world is raining: June 2013

6/28/13

When Tomorrow Starts Without Me

When tomorrow starts without me,

and I'm not there to see;

If the sun should rise and find your eyes,

all filled with tears for me;

I wish so much you wouldn't cry,

the way you did today,

while thinking of the many things,

we didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,

as much as I love you,

and each time that you think of me,

I know you'll miss me too;

But when tomorrow starts without me,

please try to understand,

that an Angel came and called my name,

and took me by the hand,

and said my place was ready,

in heaven far above,

and that I'd had to leave behind,

all those I dearly loved.

But as I turned to walk away,

a tear fell from my eye,

for all life, I'd always thought,

I didn't want to die,

I had so much to live for,

so much yet to do,

it seem almost impossible,

that I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,

the good ones and the bad,

I thought of all the love we shared,

and all the fun we had.

If I could relive yesterday,

just even for awhile,

I'd say goodbye and kiss you

and maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,

that this could never be,

for emptiness and memories,

would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things,

I might miss come tomorrow,

I thought of you, and when I did,

my heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through heaven's gate,

I felt so much at home.

When God looked down and smiled at me,

from His great golden throne,

He said, " This is eternity

and all I've promised you".

Today for life on earth is past,

but here it starts anew.

I promise no tomorrow,

but today will always last,

and since each day's the same day,

there's no longing for the past.

But you have been so faithful,

so trusting and so true.

Though there were times that you did some things,

you knew you shouldn't do.

But you have been forgiven

and now at last you're free.

So won't you take my hand

and share my life with me?

So when tomorrow starts without me,

don't think we're far apart,

for every time you think of me,

I'm right here, in your heart.

When Tomorrow Starts Without Me ~ Erica Shea Liupaeter

PS: The day that you walked you away, you decided that you would not look back anymore 24.5.13.

6/27/13

The Day I Experienced Suicide ~ Bungy Jumping in New Zealand

The craziest thing that I have done in my life so far ~ doing the AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump in Queenstown, New Zealand.

It is the same place where bungy pioneers AJ Hackett and Henry van Asch did the first ever jumping in 1988 (the year I was born) and therefore this is the place named the World Home of Bungy Jumping.

It was during our off day when we were working at the apricot pack house in Roxburgh that we decided to go on our usual roadtrip to Queenstown (one of my top favourite place in NZ). On our way back to Roxburgh, Chris and I decided to do the 43m jumping.

We were sooooo excited!!! I wasn't really feeling scared instead we were feeling so high before we jump.

Registered and paid $300 (RM750) for the package including of video and photos taken and also a t-shirt.

I only started to get nervous the moment I WAS ABOUT TO JUMP. Indescribable insane feeling for the 3 seconds free fall. A little as though I am outta my mind during the 3 seconds.

Imagine somebody who would commit suicide by jumping down from a high rise building.
BAMMM!!!!....no pain no nothing, within seconds you lose your life.

Here is where we registered and weight ourselves.

Here comes the excitement!

Having my legs tied up.

Waving to the camera man

Last shot before jumping

and JUMPPPPP!!! It's do or die...no backing up because if you are too afraid the guy behind will push you down *evil

From the visitor viewpoint...my friend in black jacket was helping me to take my video.

I jumped the wrong way ;( body should free fall and be upside down.

DONE 3 seconds of free fall

Feeling so high

and the boat from below will picked us up after we're done

Tadaa....here's my certificate

This is probably the best craziest thing that I have ever done. Totally worth every penny though you might risk yourself of getting a heart attack.

iPhoto of The Day

Today's iPhoto was taken at Sagada Mountain Province, Philippines featuring the interesting formation of limestone caves around this small little town.

I spent 2 nights in this town doing nothing except enjoying the cool breeze here and day dreaming all day long.

6/26/13

China After Thoughts

It's my 3rd time in China. The first time I was there, it was 16 years ago. My parents brought the whole family to China with a tour for a week and we went to Beijing, Tianjin and Chengdu. 2nd time was 4 years ago again we followed a tour for a week and went around Jiangnan covering Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Nanjing. This time I was in China for 1 month. Stayed in Beijing for 2 weeks+, 1 night in Tianjin, 3 nights in Xi'An and 1 night in Zheng Zhou.

I've heard quite alot from travelers about China. People either love it or hate it.

For me its a love-hate relationship towards it.

1. Everyone from young to old spits anytime anywhere.
2. They smoke even in indoor area, worst is that some places even put up the no smoking sign but still people ignore it.
3. Some people just never learn to queue up. I actually told off 2 person who tried to cut my queue during this trip.
4. They like to throw rubbish on the floor -__- creating more work to be done by the roadside cleaners
5. Some of the older people still do not like to close the toilet door while enjoying their business ;(
6. You got to buy a ticket in order to visit the tourist destination. Almost none of the places is free and ticket price aren't cheap. The most expensive entrance ticket I've paid for was to visit the Terra-cota warriors in Xi'An, China which cost me 150RMB.
7. Shopping is not VERY cheap though 90% of the products in our daily lives are made in China and if you tried bargaining with the seller and not buying afterwards they will show you the one of a kind face.

However on the good point is that I've seen a very drastic improvement on the city especially Beijing after 16 years!

It fairly easy to travel around in China IF you can read chinese. Since chinese is my mother tongue, I had no problem at all traveling around and asking for directions. However, there might be some hassle for the westerners because the public bus routes are written in chinese ONLY.

Public transportation is very cheap in China. For example, it only cost us 1-2 RMB to take the public bus around and 2RMB for the subway no matter how many stations you are going. *unbelievable cheap
If you're too lazy to take the public transport, taxi is also a great way to go around. In Beijing the starting rate of a cab is 10RMB, 8RMB in Tianjin and other smaller provinces and 14RMB in Shanghai.
Bullet train will cost you more though but you get to travel with comfort since the seats are quite spacious and food is available on board.

The food they have in China is delicious and price is reasonable. I wasn't backpacking this time and I'm traveling with my parents so most of the time I had my meals at restaurant. A meal for 5 person will cost around RMB200. My favorite dish is the dumplings and also the Daoxiaomian (a kind of noodles) *To my surprise, Korean food is much cheaper in Beijing as compared to the price paid for in Malaysia.

Toilets are much cleaner that I expected but most of them do not comes with toilet paper so its important to always bring along your own toilet paper.

Overall I think that China has been quite an eye opener and it exceeds my expectation.

Train From Butterworth to Bangkok & Vise Versa

This is my first time taking a long journey train ride. Most of the people would have opt to take the flight but because I only started to plan for my trip few weeks before, Airasia ticket was too over my budget so I decided to take the train instead.

The train ticket cost me RM111.90 from Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand and 1160 Baht for the other way round. The total distance is 1161km and will take 21 hours to reach.

There's only 2 trains (Expresss Antarabangsa, train 35&36) which run daily from Butterworth to Bangkok. I booked my ticket through the ktmb hotline and was required to collect my ticket 5 days before my departure date from KL Sentral or Butterworth train station.

The train from Butterworth to Bangkok departs at 2.30pm from Butterworth train station and will arrive at 10.30am(Thailand time which is 1 hour ahead of Malaysia's time) at Hua Lamphong train station, Bangkok.

While the train from Bangkok to Butterworth departs at 2.45pm and will arrive at 1.45pm at Butterworth.

The train ride was pretty good especially if you are lucky enough to get the lower berth sleeper and it is a great way of meeting travelers and the locals. There is even a plug for you to charge your electronic gadgets.

*remember to pre-book your ticket few days earlier because the ticket might be sold out if you were to get in on the spot

The purple train

Ticket from Butterworth to Bangkok

Food is available on board at a reasonable price

The seating

Seats were changed into sleeping berth by night time

My lower berth 2nd class sleeper felt like a first class flight

Passing through Hua Hin station


This is how the toilet looks like....ain't that bad ;)

View from the train

Fellow traveler

Arriving at Bangkok Hua Lamphong train station

Train ticket from Bangkok to Butterworth

Got an upper berth this time....wasn't as spacious as the lower berth but still good enough

My 1st Exprience with Bed Bugs

According to my friend that being bitten by bed bugs is a sooner or later matter that will happen to backpackers.

So few weeks back I was in El-Nido, Palawan, Philippines. I decided to switch to a hostel instead of staying at the Inn because it was cheaper and also offer free wifi which the inn that I'm staying at the night before does not offer.

It was a party hostel with beachfront view named La Banane Hostel in El-Nido. I was in the 9 beds lady dorm room and thought I was the only one checking into the room till later on a guy walked in and greeted me. I was kinda shock as it says 'lady dorm' but it was alright because guess what I met the first Asian backpacker and get to converse in my mother tongue language *mandarin.

The hostel was really happening till late nights with party goers. However my room had this sort of unpleasant smell. The next day we (me and my dorm mate) found a much better place to stay and so we shifted there.

When I woke up the next day my legs starts to itch like crazy and there were small spots of rashes on my hands and legs.

Thankfully it wasn't really serious and I had my clothes washed. The bed bugs did not spread through my whole backpack's clothing.

PS: try to avoid staying at La Banane Hostel if you ever visit El-Nido ;)

Here's some photo of my pretty sexy bed bugs bitten legs >,<

right is leg of mine and left is leg of my friend who had traveled 62 countries in a year

6/25/13

798 Art Zone Beijing

I spent a month in China last year November. 3 weeks in Beijing and another week traveling around the cities near by.

Did some research on places to visit in Beijing and 798 Art Zone was one of the places listed on tripadvisor.

I fell in love with this place so much that I went there twice during my trip there and partly also because the place was just within walking distance from where I was staying in Beijing.

Think art galleries, art statues, colorful buildings, cafe with super cool ambiance and good music...if you are a person who's into all this artsy fartsy stuff then I'd say its a must to visit if you are in Beijing. It's the best place to enjoy your high tea, chill and relax.

So here you go...30 photos of 798 Art Zone ;)