Room With a View

Music: Loneliness by Busker Busker

Im now in my room, lounging in my chair, feet propped up on my desk, looking out the balcony to the sea..

I leave my blinds open all the time, so whenever i open my room door the first thing that i will see is the sea.. If i look straight ahead pass my bathroom door and desk and bed and guitar.. That is.

I cant really express how it feels to be able to enjoy this view everyday. Whenever i feel that im starting to take it for granted, i'd spend some time on my balcony just appreciating what is in front of me, take it all in.

This morning i slept after sunrise. I took a peek but then i was too sleepy to enjoy it longer. This mid afternoon it was quite hot and the sky was so clear and blue against the green grass and brown buildings on my campus.. It felt so nice when i walked back from class to my dorm.

Right now, the clouds have turned ominous, dark grey and thick.. it looks like its gonna rain soon.. The sea in te shade of bluish grey.. I tried to take some pictures but it doesnt do justice to the magnificence of the view.

Sometimes when we have clear skies, no clouds and the moon no where in sight, i can see soooo many stars.. So clear.. Literally sparkling.. This place being far away from the city and all..

I hope i will never get used to this and appreciate it all like it is my first day here.

Time to buka puasa now.

Montevideo & Santiago

Music: Doi Ban Tay by Buc Tuong

Third and final email..
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ok next is montevideo.. that place is literally a ghost town.. i dont know why the city is known to be 'the most european city in south america'.. but that is what i read on the internet.. maybe its only a ghost town on sunday.. we were there on a sunday.. everything was closed.. nobody was around anywhere.. it was so dodgy even in the day, cant imagine how it is at night. so thank God we decided to go to the market.. and tu pun dia tutup awal.. by 4pm they've started kemas2 dah.. and sundown is at 9pm!! 

oh yeah of course there were ppl at the beach too. on hindsight we shouldnt have gone there probably and spent 2 days in santiago instead coz there are so many things to see and do there.. but still, it was an experience la.. and when we met the turkish guys in rio tu, one of them have actually been to montevideo jugak and he said mmg dia agree tempat tu takde pape and macam ghost town.. so yeah we're not the only one who got tricked!! hahaah. the only good thing about the city is that.. everywhere they accepted US dollars.. or else we wouldve been screwed.. we didnt change any money at the airport when we arrived the night before.. 

oh yeah i also got that metal straw with strainers thingy from montevideo.. thats was a really good purchase.. so now i dont have to tapis my tea... so convenient!! my mother even said, why never buy for me one? hahahahha how would I know u want one right?? everywhere in the city the locals will be holding a thermostat... i assume its hot water la in there.. and then they'll be holding the cup.. called guampo.. with the bamillo.. the straw... as in EVERYBODY... imagine its like everyone walking around with starbucks coffee in their hands.. but replace that with these cups.. and the tea is called yerba mate... we were lepaking at a park just to kill time.. and there was this bench with a makcik there.. then we started cam whoring la.. my friend wanted to 'blend in with the locals' so she went to seat next to the makcik and started posing with the cup and bambillo.. yes she bought the cup to give her father.. and we did so many takes and all... ye laa kata sangap.. sampai makcik ni curious la what the hell are these crazy kids doing right.. then she peeked into my friend's cup and saw that it was empty and then she started laughing at us and all... kitorang pun gelak balik aa.. sporting jugak makcik tu.. hahahhaha..the montevideo airport is small but really upscale and clean and modern. but ive learned now to not judge a city by its airport!! hahaha

santiago was the next destination. sampai malam, next day we kinda woke up late so started the day around 9.30am. it was 2 against 2... dua org nak pi valparaiso.. 2 org nak stay in santiago je.. i dont remember how we decided then. walked to city center and main area plaza de armas (everywhere in chile/peru/bolivia the main square is called plaza de armas). 

didnt know what to do so we took the hop on and off tour.. then we found out there was a half day tour to see the andes mountains.. the range is just 1 hour drive away from santiago.. but the tour has already passed.. so we talked to some guys on the tour bus and they say maybe we can ask another tour agency if they can do a private tour for us. went to check it out and tak dapat. so what we did was we hailed a cab and fixed a price to pay him and he agreed to drive us up...

 omg andes was really awesome.. the view was superbbbb.. i didnt expect to actually visit the andes when i went to santiago.. it was macam adhoc gila la.. and we didnt care paying lots coz macam.. best gila kot!!! although paying for the hop on off bus was a waste la jugak sbb we only rode it once. but whatever la kan. it was really hot but then half way up dah start sejuk sikit.. and betul2 kat peak where the ski resort is.. the city there is called el colorado.. macam kat US je kan...

 it was really curvy roads all the way up.. mmg bahaya jugak la nak naik tu.. the driver couldnt speak english so my friend yg ok sikit spanish dia boleh la jugak cakap2 ngan dia.. the song playing in his cd player macam sedap gak aa.. some spanish acoustic guitar folk chilean thing going on.. so i asked la whose the singer.. so this guy started talking about victor jara.. he was assasinated by augusto pinochet back then.. for singing bad stuff about the goverment and somewhat responsible for spreading political reform ideas to the ppl of chile.. mostly the poor and the miners.. god knows how we managed to figure all this out with limited spanish and lots of sign language.. the cd looped many times and i kept asking him to repeat certain songs, by then i already knew which track number that i liked most..and the music was sooo like in the mood and in sync with our surroundings.. the wild cactus.. the mountains and trees and rivers.. and some cowboys on horses on the road... some trekkers even.. mmg totally set the mood lah!! then my friend and i macam, eh lepas ni we ask him for the cd lah. dia sure bagi punya.. 

so after lepak2 kat andes tu dah camwhore like crazy and what not.. on the way down tu.. right before we reach the city.. suddenly the taxi driver took out the cd.. took a casing from the dashboard.. and gave us the cd.. without us even asking!!! hahahaha.. he mustve been really proud that some asians like this victor jara guy so much. so its pretty much what ive been listening to in the car until now.. if im not listening to bfm that is.. but it doesnt give the same effect as it did in santiago.. of course la kan.. 

santiago is a really modern city.. we can totally live there.. the malls are big.. and we can live in buenos aires too.. montevideo mmg tak nak ahh.. mati sangap kat situ. after andes, we went to san cristobal hill.. where virgin mary patung is.. bought our souvenirs there.. then rushed back to the hostel to get our bags and go the airport for our flight to la paz. there were still many things to see in santiago but we didnt have time. shouldnt have gone to montevideo man!! nasib baik laa tak pi valparaiso.. or else we wouldnt have gone to andes! 

Buenos Aires!

Music: Cha Va Con by Buc Tuong

this is the second email.. also written in February 2011

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first destination, buenos aires.

the city is very european. not that ive been to many european cities but thats what my friends said (all of them studies in the UK, aku sorang je sesat kat US). it was like paris but without the smell (of piss and vomit). BA is very clean, the people are really friendly of course. there were soooo many backpackers everywhere.. the first day first thing in the morning we had to go to the bolivian consulate to get our bolivian visas done.. awal2 lagi dah sesat... walked the wrong way but still got to see many things on the way... by the time we got to the consulate it was around 10am and there were soooo many people! but luckily we were the only ones queuing for the visa application, got it done.. and went back to our hostel.

we weren't sure what to do that day, so we joined the tour to visit la boca and caminito organized by our hostel, ramai jugak yg join! ada la dalam 40 ppl.. the place is soooo colorful! la boca is really a big thing there, the stadium for the one of the most popular football clubs, la boca junior, with diego maradona being one of their players before. caminito is nearby. but the place is supposedly very dodgy at night but masa siang it was ok. the guide Amelie talked to us and said she's never met anyone from malaysia before (we get that all the time while we were in SA), she was quite excited to meet us, and said she's bored with brits and australians already.. there are too many of them! hahaha. there were art streets and a market in caminito, and street tango shows etc.. it was the first time i actually felt excited being in SA, i was not feeling it prior to the trip remember? hahaha.

by 6pm we were went back to the hostel, we were still tired from the long haul flight actually so we slept in, was supposed to join in the free tango lesson that night we overslept, went down late anyway, after the class was over, we talked to the instructor about where to check out tango clubs or whatever, he told us this one place, so we took a taxi there.. it was really dodgy i tell u!! we went there around 10pm, there were still not many people around.. ppl started coming in by 11pm, and turns out there's gonna be a tango leesson, so 3 of us signed up, was really cheap anyway. it was a good class! the instructor spoke spanish to the others but english to us. i was paired up with my friend (the only guy on the trip), haha it was really awkward at first (at least for me, not because of the dance but because i had to partner him) but after a while i got used to it plus he was really cool about it. the class lasted a little over an hour, i didnt know my friend who was sitting at the side were taking pictures, and posted it on fb (picture on iphone) so after i came back i had to answer a lot of questions from my other friends about the tango pic... yes gossips all around, there's no truth to it but the pic looked scandalous anyway hahahaha.

after that we were ready to go back then 2 guys chatted us up and invited to go to another club to watch this old guy sing, apparently this guy is famous amongst the locals, the other place was just walking distance from the tango club and these 2 guys looked trustworthy, but when we were nearing the other place there was soo many ppl there looked really happening my friend who did not tango was feeling a little scared and didnt want to completely trust them. so of course we didnt want to leave her going back to the hostel alone so we opted out from going to the other place, i really thought it was a missed opportunity but we had to stick together plus it was already past midnight.

the next morning i couldnt sleep after subuh, so my friend and me went for a walk to the harbor.. around 5.30am.. walked for 20 minutes and then just sat in front of the harbor, there were boats and birds chirping and the place was really quiet weather was really cool and windy it was awesome, chatted for over an hour before we headed back to the hostel around 7.30am..

the next day we rented bicycles, the guys who were handling the bicycle rental one of them was really cute Ha ha and he even stayed in KL for like 6 months before... for work, he's a journalist.. have been all over the world if he's not in BA... ahhh the life... so we cycled all over BA, got the HRC tshirts .. cycled to many interesting places according to the route we were given, also went to the recoleta where evita was buried.. went to the harbor... etc.. was quite hot that day... that night we had a really good dinner and when went to bed, penat gila cycle frlom 10am to 7pm! our asses were really sore..

next morning took a train to tigre.. its like the place for weekend getaways for ppl living in the city, something like rottnest island to perth city.. nice quaint place, jalan2 around the market etc.. then went back to BA to get our lunch at the halal steak restaurant in palermo... oh man the argentinian steak was really gooddd!!! actually there were a few other halal restaurants in the area.. but we still went to Baraka.. and it was super cheap too!! btw water in BA is very expensive...its good to bring a water bottle so u can fill it up at your hostel.. the souvenirs and other things are also expensive in BA so we didnt do any shopping while we were there. just bought the mandatory magnets and of course HRC tshirts for me.

walked around the city for a bit more before going to the airport later that day for our flight to Montevideo, Uruguay. 

btw BA has the widest street in the world.. Av de Julio 19.. our hostel is just 5 minutes walk.. it has 7 lanes, 2 way street.. this is even wider than the street in Beijing at CBD. there are sooo many grafitti around BA, they have grafitti tours to those interested..

btw this happened in rio.. it was our last night in rio and 2nd last night in SA, we walked from copacabana to ipanema to find a place to eat.. ended up at this diner we were seating outside, macam mamak, eating our pizza (by then we were so bored of pizza already but there's nothing much we can eat while we were there, when suddenly this 2 guys approached us and asked where were we from? are we from Malaysia? we said yeah.. got to talking and all and we invited them to sit with us. turns out they are turkish, but they live in denmark. they came to us cause saw me and another friend with the tudung.. they're muslims la. one of them have been to KL and stayed for 2 months (he has a friend who studies and works here). we bought them drinks and talked about for about 2 hrs.. the guy who went to kl at first he said it was nice and stuff but then we said, ok come on seriously tell us honestly do u really like kl or just saying that? then he admitted ok well he didn't really like kl, found out he was traveling alone the entire time coz his friend was busy so he didnt get to experience that much, did not try out about the best food and stuff like that. so we said, now u definitely have to come to kl again and we'll bring them around bla bla bla. it was really awesome, they said they've never met any muslim in rio (they're there for quite a while) or anywhere in south america yet. so i guess my point is, we can safely conclude that turkish ppl are friendly to tourists, even when they're not in turkey! hahahhaa.

My Immediate Feelings Post SA Trip

Music: Choi Voi by Buc Tuong

I accidentally came across a couple of emails I wrote to my cousins a little over a week after I came back from my trip to South America.. reading back, now I'm itching to travel.. well, actually i already have a plan in the works.. its pretty much confirmed actually, since I've bought tickets and all.. hehehehehhehehe. here's the first email.. written in February 2011.
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yes it is still surreal that i've actually gone to south america and made it back... i remember thinking it was all jsut a dream last year.. all the hours and nights spent on planning it was totally worth it. 3 weeks was nothing.. SA should be done in 3 months! i definitely wanna go back there again.. anecdotes and stories.. i dont even know where to begin. i remember sometime during the trip i thought i should start a travel journal.. it would be so awesome to be able to write down the small things u'd experience during ur travels, things that u'd normallly forget but upon reading about them again, it would bring back memories and probably laughter... but who am i kidding... malas gila kot!! but to have one would be really awesome really.. it feels too late to start now since ive been to quite a few places for the past few years.. but then again its better late than never right? i have 50 more years ahead of me to still go on travels.. whats that compared to a few years so far? i'll sit on it for now. 

all those things about SA being dangerous... its overrated really... i think if ure not careful even KL is dangerous.. how many times have u heard of ppl being pick pocketed in rome? spain? london? its the same everywhere.. just apply common sense and u'll be fine. its not like travelers in SA go looking for drug lords and cartels whateever right? so all the while during the trip i felt nothing but safe and secure.. just stick to the right places and the right people and all would be ok. the only place i felt a bit menakutkan is rio. one thing i can say about the people of SA, yes this applies to all the ppl in all the countries i went to namely argentina uruguay chile bolivia peru brazil, they are very very very super friendly!! nothing like the europeans... and even more friendly than americans (they are friendly but superficial), but south americans are genuinely friendly..and very nice people.. i totally did not expect that all so it was a pleasant surprise really and made me enjoyed the trip more. 

before the trip i kinda contained my excitement for a bit until even when we flew that night to Buenos aires i STILL wasnt excited... my friends thought i was crazy and weird and they couldnt understant it because they've been excited weeks before the trip! i just didnt want to over expect so that in turn i would enjoy the trip more.. then again when i went to beijing and dubai pun the same thing happened.. i guess im its my defence mechanism so to speak when it comes to traveling.. only that i've only realized it now hahaha... 

one important advice when going to SA, if you move around the cities/countries using the airplane, and u have connecting flights on the same day.. make sure u do it on the SAME airline.. we missed ours and were stranded in Lima for 2 days and had to buy new tickets spent a fortune for that but thank god we took travel insurance (tak pernah terfikir nak amik pun before this), so we are now working towards getting the refunds and compensation. we werent planning to stay in Lima pun but ended up staying there for 2 nights and terpaksa reduce one night in iguassu and rio.. turned out ok in the end... it was the first time all of us ever experienced being stranded anywhere... and we were running around the airport like crazy to all the travel agencies and ticket counters like a headless chicken for 3 blardy hours to ask about all the flights out of Lima to all the big cities in SA but mostly were full coz carnaval is just around the corner bla bla bla.. we managed to find a solution in the end but we could've been stranded there longer and miss our flight back to KL even! but all turned out ok in the end and we had fun in Lima too!

the only thing i regretted was not being able to go see the Itaipu Dam because well it is the biggest hydro dam with the highest generation capacity in the world, due to being stranded in Lima. Three Gorges Dam in China pun belum dapat challenge lagi (after full completion of the TGD it might surpass Itaipu). i was really disappointed at the time.. like super duper sad and my friend asked me if i was ok (hours later) i said i was, well if i said i wasnt i wouldnt have changed anything would it and i didnt want to spoil the mood.. the way we react especially during times like this really affects the outcome of a certain activity, so i thought it was important for me to contain my disappointment.. i'll probably admit to my friends how i really felt this weekend hahahaha, we're gonna meet up to compile the pictures....

believe it or not i only took 1600 pictures, did not even finish using my 4GB sd card, and this time i actually increased the size of my pics.. usually aku buat 2mb je this time i set it to 5mb. oh well.. but but but, my friend took like 6000 pictures and finished 20GB worth of space on the many sd cards that she brought.. she bought a canon s95 before the trip and oh man that camera is awesome! the other friend had a canon s90 macam korang and then rosak sbb masuk air.. gila sedih!! my camera macam di anak tirikan jugak laa sbb tak cukup gempak right.. the other friend had a lumix yg ada gps and can detect where u are after snapping a picture of a famous monument or place or whatever.. cool right.. 

ok i just realized i havent been talking about any of the places in SA hahaha.. but my favorite places are La Paz in Bolivia.. and the whole of Peru (at least where we went anyway) these places i would say is the REAL south america... (at least amongst the countries we went too).. more on the places later.. like i said, i dont even know where to begin! 

p/s: and for the first time ever, i managed to finish reading a book during a travel trip! 

No Tiger Mama for Me

Music: Bong Hong Thuy Tinh by Buc Tuong

I managed to finish another book today. I've always wanted to read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother since it came out last year..so i borrowed the book from the library. Well actually a few months back there was a book fair sort of and we got to choose a lot of books for the library to buy, so this is one of the books i chose, i think i chose close like 30 books hahaha.

Anyway, its another easy book to read, simple language, simple story.. finished it in a little over 3 hours.

I guess every parent have their own way of raising their kids.. my parents are nothing like the Tiger Mother, and I wouldn't want to be raised that way. In fact, I wouldn't want to be raised any other way, because I enjoyed, and still enjoy, the freedom of choice that my parents gave me all these years. Some of you can vouch for me having one of the coolest and most laid back mother on earth.. my father is a different story, but it is a good balance :)

That being said, it never crossed my mind once that the Amy Chua was too harsh on her kids.. what she wrote is not the full story.. it would be impossible to clearly describe the dynamics of her family, her relationship with her daughters and husband, in only 200+ pages. She has many critics.. but she also has many admirers. For me, it was just another amusing story.

Definitely a good leisure read.

Won't have time to read anymore books for the next few weeks. Classes resumed today, and it looks like its gonna be another month of hell ride. On a bright note, my group for this semester looks promising :). Which reminds me, I need to come with ideas for a group name! Last semester I named our group Chillax Ltd. hahahh..

Night y'all.

p/s: I just googled and my mom was born in the Year of the Tiger!! hahaha.. she totally does not fit the description of Tiger personality. 

Bang Bang!

Music: Beo Dat May Troi by Anh Khang & Quang Thang

I just finished reading The Bang Bang Club by Grey Marinovich & Joao Silva.. this book tells the real life story of 4 white photographers based in South Africa who covered the faction war between the ANC supporters (Nelson Mandela's political party) and Inkhatha (Zulu majority).

I picked up this book from the school library, because the title caught my eye. It turned out to be a really great read. You get a glimpse of how the situation really on the ground, the fights and killings that broke out, the nature of the apartheid government, in the 4 years leading to the first democratic election in the country in 1994. It also tells the state of mind of these war-photographers who risked their lives to capture the pictures that we see in the news, that we take for granted, of wars, them being in the line of fire and all that. They see people die everyday and helpless to do anything about it, except taking pictures. I also now know the real story of the famous picture of the small Sudanese girl, all skin and bones due to the famine and war, bent down on the desert ground, alone, with a vulture lurking behind. I'm sure everyone has seen before in many UN posters and various magazines and ads for African-based relief agencies.

The book doesn't tell the whole story of apartheid course, but now I have an idea. Makes me wanna read more about it. Previously when I read Gandhi's autobiography, it was the onset of apartheid in SA, so i guess i have some background there.

Anyway I'm not in the best state of mind to write what I really feel now after reading the book since its already 4am in the morning here and I am so damned sleepy too. But I totally recommend this book, which is really an easy read, and short. I'm gonna watch the movie next.

Its the first non-academic related book that I've managed to read since I came here. It feels good to be able to finish a book after 5 months of not reading any. Tomorrow I have to get back to work, i.e. doing presentation slides for the next semester for my Prof, part of my TA job. So lazy! but I get paid so its ok hehe.

Time to sleep! 

The Buc Tuong Effect

I've been listening to this Vietnamese rock singer named Buc Tuong for a while now. His songs are amazing!! In fact, i've listened to so many good Vietnamese songs lately.. Owing to the fact that i hang out with these friends of mine almost all the time here.

Somehow anything Vietnamese, or the country itself has never crossed my mind much all these years. I've only realised now how great the country is.. With its rich culture and history.. And people.. The countrymen that i've gotten to know here are some of the most awesome ppl i've ever met. I never thought that i could have such meaningful and great relationships with ppl other than malaysians. In fact, its been so natural and easy. I feel so at ease, and we can joke around like they are malaysians, like the cultural barrier dont exist. I can truly be myself around them, with no reservations. I dont have to think of what i am gonna say or what type of jokes i can make and all the usual things that sometimes i think would not be appropriate to say or do. Its nothing like i've ever experienced with any foreigners back in the states. Maybe the setting also helps, as we are such a close knit group here. Whereas in the states i was mostly confined with the group of malaysians. And contact with non malaysians are just superficial and only as much as necessary..

I can count on and depend on these guys like i could with my closest friends back home. As much as i miss home so much lately, these guys make up a lot to lessen the homesick feeling.

Eventhough its gonna be another year and a half before i leave this place, i am already imagining how sad i would feel then.. It would probably hit me real hard.. To leave all these great friends that i have now. Im not just talking about Vietnamese now of course.

Somehow i think its the full moon that is making me all emotional hahaha.

I hope im not speaking too soon with all that i've just said. 18 months is a long way to go and who knows what might change right? But i guess even if the end doesnt turn out so great, i could look back at this post and remember how good it feels now, the things that makes me happy in this moment. Now is good. Im just cherishing the moment... And the good feelings and memories thus far.

Somehow it feels like i've been here a year instead of 5 months.. And this song is really feeding my emotions with the soothing melody.. If only i can understand what Buc Tuong is singing about..