Adventures with a cat and a dog

I caught two movies recently.

One of which is The Adventures of Tin Tin. Believe it or not, I didn't grow up reading them, not even one page. It sounded like a good movie and my mate was so keen on it so I went along. Indeed I wasn't disappointed, I was laughing so hard at some point I was afraid my friend would give me a slap! The dog so clever, the animation fantastic and the cops so funny - good choice of having Simon Pegg. A good show but I don't think the young kids would like it as much as the grown ups.

Next, I had complimentary tickets to Puss in the Boots. By the producer of Shrek and Kungfu Panda, one would think its another comedy, but it isn't. Like Tin Tin, it's more of an adventure, this time with humpty dumpty, Jack and the beanstalk incorporated. Still refreshing and I like the fact that the humpty sacrificed itself in the end. If you adore cats, you will surely love the show, how cute is that baby Puss!!

Little bad heaven

And this is my latest spot, done a few hours ago. Not by myself, but I could almost paint as good as this. The color code is 333 for Chanel, it's dark chocolate. My colleague who is a pro definitely paints SO MUCH better than this salon!!

Got this off deal.com.sg and it was $38, not cheap at all but it was using Chanel colors, a brand I never tried before and thought it would be a new experience. The recent deals are going for $20 for a session of classic manicure plus pedicure or $50 for 3 sessions. How true is the deal? You will only find out when you get there. After this time, I really don't think I want to buy such services, if you are a regular customer and bought a package, the service would be ten times better!

So I went to Little Dot's Haven located at The Bencoolen. It took me a while to find it as it's up one of the stairways, you just need to try peeping into the few "holes". It was empty on a Friday afternoon, so I had the full attention, wonder if it was a good or bad thing as they could then say anything they could make up with? Like, I was asked to top up additional $8 to use the quick dry top and base coat. I thought that was a ridiculous request, you should be using that for your customers already! Do you expect to use "slow dry" when they are paying so much? Then they tried to add on a foot treatment or recommend the gelish nails for additional top up. I hate hard selling, so I insisted not doing them.

Just for your information, the boss of the salon happened to be painting my nails (fingers only of course). Her face seemed to change when I rejected doing the treatment or gelish nails. Why force someone when they do not want it? Anyhow, then she tried to sell me other services like brow waxing. I gave in after her constant "nagging" but that was indeed better than her nails service. I think she should just focus on that than painting my nails!! What a horrible job she has done! She ruined that beautiful color. I had to ask her staff to repaint one hand because it wasn't done properly, the edge was not painted! Geez... If you're going there, I hope you're not getting the boss's personal service!! Seriously... I can paint better.

Blue & yellow

I have been attracted to colors, pastel or bold, bright or dull. Last week I had the baby blue on (yes, one of the Chiang Mai polishes), and it attracted quite a lot of attention as I do not normally have such light colors on my nails. They were soft and mild, and as days passed by, they grew on me. I began to really like it till they started chipping. Not bad - it lasted me a week, the hawthorn color chipped even more quickly.

Yesterday, I was at the BHG's closed door sale and spotted this really catchy color off the Bourjois shelf. It's much cheaper than L'Oreal or the others. It was about S$9.8 before a whooping 30% off. Thanks to BHG for damaging my wallet! I know it's Christmas season but I have been spending far too often, I seem to have lost my self control. S$200 bucks gone this week - on shopping!!! Money is so hard to earn but so easily spent!!! Anyway, before I go off topic, yes, this is a really nice mustard color. It does seem closer to my skin color than what the photo really depicts. I hope it will grow on me because I do like mustard.

Gimme change!

I'm a sucker for changes. When anyone around me encounters a change in their life, I am envious. Is it a disease or some kind of addiction?? I don't know.

My sister found a new job. And recently, a few people in the company left, one in less than 3 months, the other in less than 6 months. When things remain stagnant, I crave for changes. It's not that I am unhappy at my current place, but things are becoming too much of a routine, and it annoys me. Can all you people who are leading a routine life tell me how you do it??

Chiang Mai IV - ❤ elephants

"Elephant Nature Park, Baan Chang Elephant Park, Elephant Nature Park, Baan Chang Elephant Park, Elephant Nature Park, Baan Chang Elephant Park..."

It kept running through my head, then I decided to drop both an email about my visit before making a decision. I made up my mind on the later as they seemed patient enough and did not rush me to make a booking. From what I read, Baan Chang is a smaller conservation centre and houses about 17 elephants.

Due to my burn, I postponed the trip to the second last day in Chiang Mai. I didn't want to cancel it as deep down I really wanted to do this, so I rang and asked if I could take part in things that wouldn't aggravate my wound. The person communicating with me was nice enough to suggest what I could do. But in fact I didn't skip any of the activities ;)

I was the first one to be picked up, and soon the van filled up and we arrived at the park about an hour later. We got a short briefing by the park owner. I am now confused who is the park owner, as this guy Pom says he is, while the lady on the phone talking to me named Tinar is too. Each of us pay 2400 bahts for it, its about S$100. The money as the owner said goes towards keeping the elephants full and happy and improving the home for them.

I was thrilled when I first saw the elephants. Since we arrived, we could see from afar they were swaying their trunks happily side to side. When we got nearer with baskets of sugar canes and bananas, you could see them dying to get near to you. But they were chained to the trees for safety reasons. I got to feed 3 different elephants and also got pictures taken. I did seem really delighted on the pictures.

After feeding, two elephants were brought up to demonstrate the bareback riding. We were taught simple commands to instruct them to sit, walk, turn and stop. We then each took turns to get on the elephant. After that, we were asked to get on a second time to make them walk a short distance and command them at the same time.

Doesn't the elephant look pretty happy? I don't know but it does seem like they really are. It's infectious and I am really glad I was there to spend time with them! They are not smelly like most people think! Even with their dungs in the bath pool, I didn't smell a thing. Probably I'm intoxicated by them, still am. :D

We had lunch after the riding lesson. After food, we were going to go trekking with the elephants! Two to one elephant, I shared Jumbu (her Thai name isn't spelt like this though but Woody, our trainer, said its the name of the fruit) with a 65-year-old American auntie. I sat in front, commanding the elephant on the way up, but Jumbu was always hungry, she kept getting sidetracked (by food of course). It took a while before we finally got to the destination then they had a rest before we made our way down. I decided not to ride on the way down so I walked between the elephants, and trying to avoid getting my face smacked by their wagging tails. LOL.

We walked them to their bath pool where they happily soaked themselves. Some layed down and gosh... pooed at the same time!!! The baby elephant (about 2 years) was sitting in the middle, getting scrubbed by the caretaker. So so so adorable! Auntie and I began to wash Jumbu too. Some of the people in the tour decided to just watch, they were probably afraid of the "dirty water". After a while, I got distracted and started splashing at the passing elephants. Most of them are older and ignored my splashing, I think they quite enjoyed the cool water getting on them. But the baby elephant was the most cheeky, he went around spraying water... and when I splashed on him, he made sure he had his revenge too!

Thanks to Woody who caught this funny picture! The elephants sure made my day and a fantastic end to my holiday. I would recommend anyone doing this if you're an animal lover :)

Chiang Mai III - Temples

Indeed, the Rose of the North, Chiang Mai, has countless temples. One cannot even start to count.

Someone said if you haven't been to Doi Suthep, then you haven't been to Chiang Mai at all. We made our way there, up the spiralling road up the mountain and then 300 steps up to the temple. The temple is huge, majestic and elaborated. One should take the time to notice and appreciate the beauty of it. The bells hanging at the edge of the roof, the wishes hanging on the rows of golden bells, the gold statues, the coins stuck onto a piece of stone, even the tiles, everything seems to be made with care and thoughts. Also a mini garden with beautiful animal/monk/child-like statues (like a mini heaven), you will see at the back of the temple. Around the temple, there are many cute statues that would bring a smile on your face.

Worth a mention - the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, right in the city. We did not get to enter as we were in shorts. Unfortunately, this one is becoming touristy, they even charge for loaning you something to wrap in if you want to enter. We did have a tour around the surrounding, go to the back and you'll see elephant statues along with other delicately designed accompanying temples. Many of the temple do look similar.

Here's some quotes (click on picture to magnify) I snapped from one of the temples, they are on different trees around the compound. I thought it would be nice to share them. I do like most of them, they do make a lot of sense. The few favourites of mine are "If there is nothing that you like, you must like the things that you have" and "Until death, there is nothing enough". Guess life should be as simple as it is, we are borned with nothing, remember?

One of the more unique temples we saw. This is somewhere in the middle within the gates. Sister likes this best apparently. We weren't not allowed to go up, so we could only look from far. There are also many other interesting temples around this one.

The cutest award goes to this one, outside the gates, its along Thapae Road. They even have a Donald Duck statue. There are many animal statues and makes it almost zoo-alike. There is no other similar to this.

My favourite beside Doi Suthep is this. I don't remember names for these temples as we didn't specifically look for them, it was just on the map and we decided to have a look. This one has a grand entrance, look at the stone entrance. Then most of the temple is built with wood (or at least it looks like it), then there are massive baskets of yellow flags (not sure of its significance). At the little green garden behind, there was also a monk reading, with a dog sitting besides him... so peaceful.

Chiang Mai II - Yum Yum

And here's to the topic which most people like... FOOD! Those mentioned are carefully selected from the many meals we have had during the trip. Disclaimer: We did have some very good food, though authenticity not proven :P

I adore the Thailand fruit shakes, I always without fail have them on every trip to Thailand. The best one (shown above) is at Potluck Gallery, a mini shop cum cafe we chanced upon between our temples visit. The shake is huge, I swear taller than my face! And oh so fresh!!!

We also found Khao Soi, the Northern Thailand cuisine, recommended by my Bangkok colleagues. I like it so much we had it twice at the same place. I tried the pork and beef while sister sticked to her choice of chicken. I couldn't be bothered to look for it at other places, as we found it at a local eatery very near to our hotel. For a comparison, most people compared it to our Laksa, but it's more towards curry gravy but less thick.

Superb mango salad from the food stall along the Sunday Walking Market. The walking market is an eye-opener indeed, many sold handicrafts, food, clothes and even shoes. I did not buy much except for food and a few small stuff, like an anklet and postcards. But the sister got herself tonnes of rubbish :P I am somehow glad we missed the Saturday market else she would have bought even more!

Next is iBerry, a super cool garden cafe. I mentioned in a previous post, a place recommended by my friend who went earlier. We popped by the 1st day after a temple visit, sister was fascinated by the cakes and so we did that and the drinks. But we were upset we didn't get to try the ice cream, and so we went back on the last day for a second time! The ice cream that matched my nail colors (just coincidence)! These were my picks, Blue Havana and Brownie as sister ordered the ones I had on my mind Starfruit and Guave with salted plum sorbet. So we shared them all.

This is my Phad Thai tom yum with chicken, ice green tea with honey with sister's fried rice with pineapple, ham, raisin and cashew nut from Khun Mor's Cuisine. We did this right after the iBerry, to be honest, I wasn't hungry!! But it was about lunch time and the place was packed, we reckoned we should do a proper local lunch before we were to head for the airport. The menu is impressive, so much variety... Take a look at their website, I am surprised they even have an online version of it! The food was good, I just wish I was more hungry and could have eaten more!!

Last but not least, one of the dishes I made during my Thai cooking class with Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School. Stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts. I like the fact they have a farm for students to cook at, but I did the town one for convenience. My review will be on Tripadvisor. I did this alone as the sister fancies nothing except pampering herself with foot massage. I enjoyed the experience and especially learning something from another culture, now I have a recipe book from them which I will try out when I have some spare time to cook. I also did tom yum soup and green curry. They didn't taste so bad actually and in fact better than a dinner I had outside!

Chiang Mai I - Yi Peng

It's time for my travel journal again! Unlike the past, I'll be focusing less on the details but just the highlights of the trip :)

My main objective when I planned this trip is to join the mass lantern release at this event, Yeepeng or Yi Peng Festival. Apparently, it's a Thai buddhist event held by the locals. Here's a little extract from Wiki:

"Loi Krathong coincides with the Lanna (northern Thai) festival known as "Yi Peng". Yi Peng is held on a full moon of the 2nd month of the Lanna calendar. The festival is meant as a time for tham bun, to make merit. People usually make khom loi from a thin fabric, such as rice paper, to which a candle or fuel cell is attached. When the fuel cell is lit, the resulting hot air which is trapped inside the lantern creates enough lift for the khom loi to float up in to the sky. In addition, people will also decorate their houses, gardens and temples with khom fai : intricately shaped paper lanterns which take on different forms. The most elaborate Yi Peng celebrations can be seen in Chiang Mai, the ancient capital of the former Lanna kingdom, where now both Loi Krathong and Yi Peng are celebrated at the same time resulting in lights floating on the waters, lights hanging from trees/buildings or standing on walls, and lights floating by in the sky."

I managed to figure out the date for this year's festival and booked my ticket, unfortunately many people booked for the wrong date as there are two this year and the later one is made up specifically for the tourists. You need to pay 100USD for the later one, while the first is free. We found Jack from the forum and got him to take us there.

Before the event, we had free food donated from the Buddhist temple. Then we bought a lantern, found a spot to sit and waited for the ceremony to begin. After the sun set, the monks strolled in on the red carpet, there were chantings and prayers before they finally lit the first khom loi and then helpers came around to light our candle holders. Then it was our turn! It was very nerve-wrecking as the lantern would easily get burnt if not done properly given the huge size. Fortunately, there were many Thai people around whom were very willingly to provide the extra help :)

We were sitting togeher with some Americans who came along with Jack. Emily was travelling alone so we shared her lantern as well as she couldn't possibly handle the lantern alone! The first time was exciting, my sister and I lit it with some help, but we were so nervous we let it go without making a wish! Then when you looked up the sky, here's the view we got.

It was magnificent, breathtaking, stunning! Everyone was speechless, admiring the sight! Touching!! I was so glad I came, I was there and I participated in it!

Then when we lit Emily's lantern, we were more ready this time. It nearly caught fire but thanks to the local, we saved it! We finally got it up, and before we let go, I screamed, "Make a wish!" We closed our eyes for a moment, and then I said, "Ready?" They all nodded and we released it! I shrieked and tears almost flowed down! It was so surreal and I would want to do this again (maybe at Taiwan's Pingxi Festival!!) or perhaps back here in Chiang Mai!

I was so restless I couldn't stop going around snapping pictures. Then I carelessly bumped into one of the blown out candle holders (used to light the lantern), and the hot wax got splashed over my shoulder and my face. I was still calm, but I told them I got burnt then they immediately doused me with plenty of water. I remembered I saw the First Aid booth while I was walking around, so I walked myself there. I wasn't in lot of pain, but my arm felt hot. My face was fine, phew. I had to remove my shirt to have the wet towels administered over my burns, fortunately that day I decided to wear something underneath! Seemed almost like this had been planned! There was a doctor on-site, and many others soon came in with similar burns. I was given a pain-killer after they managed to cool down my burns with the wet towels, and then a presciption so I could get medicine from a pharmacy.

Thanks to Jack and his wife, Ting, I managed to get to a pharmacy and Ting also kindly gave me some burn cream when we visited their stall at the Sunday Walking Market the following day. Blisters came up right away. So it's second degree burn. But fortunately it wasn't so bad that I needed to go to a hospital. It was only the 2nd day of my trip and I had so much planned!! I was so worried I got to cancel my elephant mahout training! This got to be one of the worst accidents I have since I travelled.

Despite the burn, I felt blessed enough that I pulled through the holiday smoothly. No infection. No burn on my face. No pain (not much that I can remember!). And right now, the new skin has already formed, it doesn't look like I will have any scar too. Thank you for looking after me!

11.11.11

First marathon. What a significant date for anything for the first time!

If you know me, you probably know that I am not a fan of running. I used to have running knee I called it, so painful that I couldn't even climb the stairs. Then after a series of pilates and self-care, I can hop and jump now. But I never was keen in running as a sports, even during my school days, I struggled to pass my NAFA test 2.4km. I still managed a silver just before I left school, but I think not anymore ;)

The company sent an email about a charity marathon - The Bull Charge. The route was fascinating - along Fullerton, Marina Bay Sands and Singapore Flyer. Don't you agree what a scenic running track! So I was tempted, even if I wasn't running, I could walk. I decided to join in the fun, with almost half the Singapore's office colleagues.

Here's a photo of our "uniform", the company decided to make us kilts so we would stand out from the other companies. (No photo of me in kilt here, of course!) It was a crazy turn-out, we had difficulties running in the first 1km as it was too packed to get pass most of the slow people. I did half walking and the other half running and managed to clock about 42 minutes, need to see the exact time when the results are out :P

If you ask me, I would not do a marathon again, unless its for charity again ;)

山楂之恋

I would never imagine myself being a big fan of painting nails. But right here, now I am. I used to think that it's a hassle and too difficult to do. I liked to keep my nails short and clean. Today ironically I am trying to keep them long, enjoying the painting (even painting for my mum) and even think it's theraupetic. I really think this phrase is true "Never say never" because some day you might just be so wrong!

I am in love with this color. There's no name or number, it's a brand from Thailand named Calar. I picked this up together with a few others (as below) in Chiang Mai in a tiny accessory shop. I will call it 山楂 or Hawthorn because it resembles the color of it, and is a color I had been looking for.

Holiday pix up

Finally got around to putting two albums up, thanks to the long weekend. I am getting better at filtering photos, only 25% of the pictures are selected. So much more to do, to write about the holiday, to write reviews and I have not been writing my food reviews here as well. Horrible me. I hope I get more time, less brain cells killed at work and so more energy to accomplish more in the coming weeks.

Oh yes, the arm is healing! Pretty speedy. I'm already itching to peel it off.

The rose of the north - Chiang Mai

The checklist for Chiang Mai all ticked despite a minor accident during the holiday.

✔ Yi Peng Festival - thousands of lanterns being released
✔ Baan Chang Elephant Park - learnt to command, feed , bareback ride and bathe elephants
✔ Thai Cooking Class - cooked 3 dishes
✔ Eat Khao Soi - a northern Thailand cuisine
✔ Sunday walking market - walking in my poncho in the rain, eating at the street market, exhausting my legs
✔ Visit temples - Doi Suthep is magnificient
✔ Eat ice-cream @ iBerry!!!
✔ Eat enough Thai food - Phat thai, mango sticky rice, Tom yum, green curry...

All in all, a superb holiday except for a burn... I think scar can be quite sexy ;) Oh well, it's a souvenir from Chiang Mai. To be honest, I don't remember it being too painful, still thankful it was an easy journey after that, it's now drying up as I write.

p.s: I will fill up with the trip details later on.