...i cried happily...

...i spent the weekend at home wandering my mind back to the old days when i found refuge in the company. working on saturdays. then working on alternate saturdays. then working 5 days a week! then there were the office moving. and the camping without toothbrush in icm. the days of 17sites concurrent enrolment. the sleepless nites getting ready for enrolment and deployment. the sending of cds out. somehow we were all so passionate and committed to get the things moving. then we were all so closely tied together by this string called friendship. a family we are. and indeed, we cultivated the values of family and working together for we know a family must always keep together. a culture that we all know, as long as we are still a family, we will survive. now, we are still a family; and that leaving it is even harder when all of us have put in so much effort to grow together. i am happy to have this family members running about planning for my farewell. i cried over the weekend. and all the tears are tears of joy and happiness that our family stuck together and bonded well. now that we are known as the X's; i am happy to have spent my 4 million over minutes hanging around with them. i cried happily...

...when countup=0...

...been counting for 8 years and 9 months. the counting is finally up. today is my last day in this company. today i shall leave this place, a place i called my second home. deep in my heart, i am already crying. but on the more superficial side of me, yea, i am transparent. everyone can see my sadness. my heart breaks into pieces leaving behind my team who have struggled the hard times with me. but their laughter, their smile, their perseverance brought my heart back to one piece.

my dearest buddy wt have organized 3 beautiful and memorable dinner for me. first was with a few x’s at haven. with beautiful music and great food, we had so much fun chatting away and snapping pictures with each other. loon bought us dinner that night. the second dinner was at friday’s. everyone was having fun bitching around and talking on a high pic about the cats and dogs while constantly keeping an eye on the kpi’s of our dear friend, the double o smiley. surprisingly we were able to get ong up on the chair and sang us all happy birthday! the night did not just end but continued to mamak with wt and kevin and we retired home to bed at almost 2am. the third and final dinner was with the x’s as well but a different group. wt knows it all. he knows the in and out of my style and me. we had korean bbq at 1u with the few people that really meant a lot to me. the burning sensation of the bbq made my tears fill even faster than the concorde that flew across the world. i did not cry.

but the hardest was leaving the company ground that evening. wt and ong have made a memory book for me. i didn’t want to read it on the spot nor look at it because it will surely make me cry. wt gathered the rest of the colleagues in the poolroom and sang auld lang syne. you know the auld lang syne; which especially became so meaningful at that particular moment. you know how easily i can cry and this song didn’t make it any easier on me. i tried so hard to keep the tears from coming out. and believe me, it is hard. i resorted to change the whole situation into a happy one because i did not want to cry infront of everyone. i just laughed and joined in the singing and was having fun with it. their singing has successfully forced a few drops of tears coming out from my eyes.

after the 3rd dinner organized by wt, we went back to the office. wt and ong accompanied me for my final walk around the office. at almost 1.30am and the cold wind began to blow, wt and ong walked with me to the back and to the tea house area. i just stood there looking for the final time the place i called my second home. both of them understood how i felt and just left me stood there for a moment. all the memories flashback to mind. over 4 million minutes of my youth. how do we measure every minute of it? am i glad that it is all over?

the final goodbye. i waved goodbye to the office i once called my second home, the place i helped decorated, the place filled with memories, the place i grew up with. i went home and cried the whole night reading the memory book that was specially put up by ong and wt for me. my memory with these people will always have a special place in my heart.

my journey does not end here. the distance to travel is for sure a long one. and i am sure with the superhighways that these best buddy of mine is helping to build; mile after mile after mile, the journey will be a smooth and great one. to these great people (you know who you are) thank you for bringing light to my life...

...countup...

...countdown already. time passes so fast. loon suggested i should countup instead of countdown. counting up to 8days now. its hard. really hard at this moment. the tears bundling up, the memories and the people you have gone thru life with. its harder than leaving your good frens after youth exchange program. people that you have gone thru your youth with and shared many memories together. i dunno how many nights i have put my mind into thinking of this day. what will happen to me. there is just something i cant let myself to let go. counter is still counting up now...

...big favour...

...photo taken by daniel, a good buddy i got to know from japan. both of us had so much fun in japan and somehow we just clique so well together. wakakakz. which reminds me that i owe annice and irene a huge big favour. lemme settle down with my life at the moment first ya...

...next up...

...next up will be on my america trip. just waiting to do a writeup of the entire trip i had with fred before i lose my memories of the wonderful time staying in venice beach, dancing and shouting away with the mardi-gras in vegas, casino hoping in vegas, standing on the skywalk in grand canyon, san franscisco getaway, rich and famous pebble beach, yosemite national park and many many more nice experiences in usa...

...land of the rising sun...

...japan :: 19 aug 2007 - 25 aug 2007...

...i didn’t want to go japan. denphong forced me there! denphong forced me to get a ticket. he forced me to go all the way to japan embassy to get my visa and he forced me to get my butt in the plane and fly to japan. indeed i never regretted being forced by den to go japan. i am glad i heeded den’s persuasion to go japan. it all happened too fast that i did not plan for anything at all to go japan. and its here i come japan.

kansai international airport is like wow. i have always dreamt of landing on the worlds biggest manmade island airport and here i am in kansai international airport – kix. i am so happy. being lost in my dream i wandered around the airport aimlessly; looking at people and things that i got lost and nearly miss the bus. but of course how could den leave me behind.

i still cant believe that i am in japan. my trip covers himeji, kobe, osaka and nara. and denphong forced me to go japan.
stayed in engyo-ji temple up in the hills of mt shosha in himeji. how wonderful of den to give us 3 hours of pure shopping and free time wandering in himeji. had a wonderful time shopping around himeji under the scorching hot sun and walking around town; equipped with my 400d. 3 hours of wandering in himeji, and its time to finally go up the hills of engyo-ji temple. engyoji's temple buildings are spread over a spacious, densely forested area on the mountain top. from the ropeway station it takes a 10-15 minute walk uphill to reach niomon gate, and another 10-15 minutes to reach the maniden, a beautiful wooden temple hall, constructed on pillars on a steep slope. another 5 minute walk along forest trails brings us to the three massive wooden temple halls, known as mitsunodo: the daikodo (main hall), jikido (lodging and dining hall, now exhibiting temple treasures) and jogyodo (gymnasium). in recent years, mount shosha has gained some fame overseas by having served as a film location for the hollywood tom cruise’s movie "the last samurai”. beautiful temple. view is fantastic. arrived at the temple and was greeted by the gorgeous sunset.

temple stay comes with japanese style bath. how in the world is this shy malaysian going to survive in the japanese style bath? yes i did. and there is actually nothing to it when everyone does the same. so i did. showered with my japanese and korean buddies. but my other malaysian friends were too shy to join in except for daniel. just strip and shower and soak in the hot bath and chit chat. that was easy. so, that was something unexpected. started off complaining about it but ended up feeling nothing about it. fyi, japanese style bath means communal shower. there were stools in the bathroom where we have to sit and shower and after that we should jump into the hot water pool to relax our body. and in the hot hot hot summer, it does feel wonderful soaking in the hot water.

food of course japanese style food. not that we have sushi all day long. there are more to japanese food than sushi you know. itadakimasu. that’s what everyone gotta say just before the meal. at night we have cup noodles party. cup noodles party is where all of us have to bring cup noodles from our own country. guess which country’s cup noodles was the popular ones? and malaysian cup noodles were the ones remaining at the end of the few days.

after 3 days stay in engyo-ji, we moved to osaka. first stop was kobe the fashionable city of japan according to mamiko-san. indeed the buildings, the bridge the entire architecture were rather fashionable. after a short stopover at kobe we were off to dainenbutsu-ji temple. here they have the world’s biggest chanting beads. humongous beads. and it took the whole group of us to hold the beads while we chanted in japanese. suddenly i can speak japanese. dinner at dainenbutsu-ji was very filling and had a fun time wandering the huge beads temple ground shooting sunset and silhouettes of the temples.

off we went to shintenno-ji temple in osaka for our night rest. i so wanted to experience the night life of osaka but duh to the rain. ruin all the plans. thus we were stuck in the temple ground eating cup noodles and having tones of fun learning japanese and korean. shintenno-ji temple is beautiful when all the lights are litted up and the entire pagoda shines in the darkness of the night.

next morning we have our shopping spree in osaka. finally i get to contribute to japan economy. nothing much i could buy except went round searching for the perfect gift for wt, searching high and low for a shuriken and snippering at japanese models with the telephoto zoom. my legs were hurting and i was limping all the way after hurting myself in angkor wat the week before. poor daniel has to accompany me in the slow walk. what the heck, we had so much fun targeting at japanese models in osaka. hei, its osaka man. what you expect me to do when i have a telephoto zoom lens?

shopping was good. snippering with daniel was more fun. and anake taught us how to shoot nice pictures of the japanese model. now, that is what i call having a fun time with the camera. anake is the photographer for the whole event and he takes nice pictures. he taught me how to use my camera and how to make changes to the settings to make the color nicer. i was told to change the settings to faithful if i want to take pictures of landscape and sceneries but change back to normal when taking pictures of portraits.

next stop was nara. we were invited to stay in tonan-in temple way up in mt yoshino. the temple is under the world heritage. our bus have to park at the foot of the hill and we had to walk all the way up; which covers more than 1km away. though very tiring and exhaustive, the walk was fabulous where we witness the sunset at tonan-in temple. magnificent!!!

my japan trip has been exceptional. we got to visit places and do things the japanese way and we were not tourist. we get to stay in the world heritage temple, travel to last samurai shooting place and had fun interacting with japanese, korean, indonesian, thai and bangladeshis friends. the trip has shown me the values of friendship beyond frontiers. though not much of tourist sight seeing time in japan, but having the opportunity to visit places and stay in temples up the hills of japan is something spectacular that not many can have the chance. and having so many japanese friends, korean friends, indonesian friends and thai friends does make a big difference. heck, i can visit bali next and call up wandra to bring me around. and that is friendship beyond frontiers. i am indeed happy that denphong forced me to go japan. yes, i still have a lot of yen and i will be back!!!...

...one dollar country...

...siemreap/cambodia :: 11 aug 2007 - 14 aug 2007...

the most overused words in siem reap is one dollar! every kid there knows how to say one dollar! even in the most remote of all places, the worst of the kind place to stay at the edge of tonle sap lake where edision’s failed to position his most famous creation knows how to say one dollar.

armed with my 400d and a telephoto lens, i was sitting at the edge of the boat tucked quietly at a corner and position my leg as my tripod and took pictures of life in tonle sap. i was given the impression that tonle sap lake is much similar with floating market in bangkok where the floating minimarts and hawker food are much available right to the side of your boat. yes indeed it was. it was indeed unsimilar. kids were seen hopping from one boat to another shouting one dollar and holding up a can of coke. i was still into my telephoto lens and dlsr composition that i felt so guilty for not parting with my prize one dollar from my possession. i got a glimpse of sunset at tonle sap.

the following day we went and visit angkor wat. entrance fee was usd20 for a one-day pass. not too sure which is which, angkor wat to angkor thom to bayorn to all sorts of temple ruins in angkor wat. gotta check the book for the correct names.

the 65m climb of 75 degree up the sky was horrifying. my fear of heights suddenly become apparent. but the view up there is simply magnificent. i was so intrigued by the beauty from the top that i totally lost count of time and thought everyone has left for the bus. i hurriedly rushed to the bus only to find it empty. thus, i walked back to angkor wat. this short stint of hide and seek made me panic and i spent the next half hour wandering around the temple looking for the group. but still managed some nice composition. kids were also seen hovering all over angkor wat with their famous one dollar. and what other better times then having to pay one dollar for 2 cans of coke chilled in ice for hours!

at bayorn where we saw the famous face and inside the temple ruins itself was the remains of what tomb raiders has to offer the world. while my mind was wandering on the magnificence of the roots and the total darkness in between the ruins, suddenly i saw this old woman handing me 3 joss sticks. she was staring right at me with the joss sticks that i had to take this picture of her. and i think this was the best shot.

at night my legs were shouting and screaming. i was twisting and turning in bed. my head was wandering about the one dollar kid who sold me 25 bracelet. and the kid who came to my rescue with 2 cans of coke for a dollar. just at the right time.

the next day was the highlight of the entire trip; an enlightening visit to 2 homes. one orphanage and another home for the street kids. both homes are run by some australians. at the first home, which was more well off with many supports from many people as it is situated downtown. met a kid with heart problem who just did a bypass and another dwarf little boy whose shoes have strings that replaces the ankle guard. some of the kids cried when we left the home and it was an indeed touching moment. the kids are just so beautiful.

the other home for the street kids was less fortunate but they seems so much happier. due to the location of the home which is way way out of reach and the bus is notable to access due to low hanging cables, we had to walk for about 1km on the orangy soiled road with mud and soft soils. this home called the green gecko, this home is for the kids who are not orphan but with parents who are not fit to raise these kids. we were told that kids in australia do not want to go to school but in cambodia, everyone wants to go to school. yes, indeed every kid in cambodia wants to go to school. our donation drive back home for these homes really paid off well where we raised more than rm10k.

later was the visit to the silk farm. nothing much to see there anyway. just like any other ordinary silk farm.

the day ended with tired feet and tones of memories of the orphanage home. the face of the down syndrome kid who showed me a hifi still lingers in my memory until today. simple ordinary life of the cambodian. torn apart by the war, cambodia has a special place in my heart – the one dollar country. next time i am back in cambodia, i will be well equipped with one dollar instead of my cf card!

...around the world...

...i think i have been very fortunate for being able to visit the other side of the globe; flying more than 19hours to feel the american dream - hollywood. then flew north to the poorest of the poor people; children practically begging for one dollar - cambodia and then to the most hitech of all cities where where you see vending machine at practically every corner you go - japan. and of course with such extensive travelling i do have alot of pictures to share. my other side of life has not been so balance lately; constantly making me off balance. but when i got my balance back, will share all the wonderful moments i captured throughout my journey. here are 3 pictures from the 3 different countries...

...the magnificnce of angkor wat...

...engyoji-temple where the last samurai was shot here...

...las vegas the city that never sleeps. indeed...