New hairstlye for a new start :)

Somehow girls have the tendency to get bored of their hair really easily. I was getting fed up with my dull hair with irritating split ends at the bottom. So, I went to cut my hair at Xpect Studio using a Groupon voucher. It was $49 for dye and cut so I thought it was relatively reasonable pricing. Xpect Studio have 5 outlets in Singapore but I went to the one at International Building along Orchard Road. I didn’t print my voucher because usually I just need to show the code and it works so i was horrified that I had to go to far east plaza to print that voucher before getting my hair cut.

I wanted to cut bob short because I never had it before but after reading online, i realized i have a round face so apparently my face is not suited to cut bob short because it will make my face look rounder. and so i decided to heed my hairdresser’s advice as well and cut shoulder length instead.

before the cut

as the hairdresser was cutting my hair, he said that I have many empty spots on my head! the horror! and i told him i know i have been dropping a lot of hair but i didnt know it was that bad. oh no ): i think i need to go yun nam soon! well, i wanted something more brownish actually but the person gave me sth that i felt was too red ): but nevertheless, it’s quite nice.

after! haha. can’t really see but check out the next photo

this is not even under the sun. my hair is redder under the sun. oh dear

Tags: cheap, groupon, haircut, international building, xpect studio

My Sri Lanka adventure (cont)

To continue from my previous post about the misconceptions of Sri Lanka, I will be sharing my itienary, food, lodging and also talking more about the sea side (yay! finally. my fav)

So when I was there for 10 days, we went to:

Sirigiya & Dambulla -> Kandy -> Adam’s peak -> Nuwara Eliya -> Ella -> Galle & Unawatuna -> Mirissa -> Colombo -> Negombo

We spent about one day at each location thus for the first time in my life, i stayed at 9 different hostel/inn/guesthouse/hotel throughout the whole vacation. lol. weiqi planned almost the entire trip actually. thanks to him, i didnt really have to go through the hassle of finding accommodation. but some of the accommodations were really eye openers and I guess cuz being girls, we are too pampered in singapore. hahaa. I didn’t take pictures at everywhere I stayed in but here are those I took:

  

  

i like the place we stayed at nuwara eliya the most. the environment was really nice and relaxing, with the carrot farms and all. we didnt spend a lot on lodging throughout this trip actually. on average we spent about SGD$50 per room for 3 ppl so it’s about $15 per person per night. but the more expensive resorts were about SGD$35 per person per night. do take into consideration that we were sharing a triple room. so maybe for double room more ex. felt perhaps maybe we should have because we did spend quite some time in the place since there is nth much to do at sri lanka. if you are feeling rich, perhaps you should try the colonial houses there. i heard they are really pretty apparently it cost about USD150 per night.

so moving on to food. we came up with a food list on our own to try while we are there. they are curry and rice (their most common food), kutthu, egg hoppers, string hoppers, lamprais, watalappam (desserts), milk tea, crabs, jackfruit curry and mango curry (yes, apparently they cook fruits as curry too)

pastries. quite tasty actually

curry and rice. super spicy. omg. but nice

milk tea, woodapple and cheesecake. i know the cheesecake doesnt taste like cheesecake at all

 

chicken kutthu. mix of garlic, prata, chicken, spices. didnt really like it cuz i hate onions and garlic. yeah.

the lamprais that my friend was eagerly finding. haaha

moving onto my favourite photos of this trip…

sunset by the lake at Kandy

train ride from nuwara to ella

the beach at negombo

awesome place for reflection

and i think the only place i would go back would be colombo. haha. i love the seaside better than the mountains. i would want to chill at galle face hotel. really nice place to chill. recommend it to people who likes to chill by the sea!

at galle face hotel. oldest hotel in sri lanka

awesome place to see sunset at colombo

the big field next to galle face hotel

so that’s all about sri lanka! so glad to have finally finish writing about it! haha. hope this post inspires you to want to go Sri Lanka too. haha. I will be going to Sydney in July. can’t wait!! Oh, just in case, you all wonder where I get my money for all the travelling, I actually do pay all of them myself and most of my trips are really cheap. Like for this Sri Lanka, I spent about SGD$980 for all 10 days, all expenses including flight. so who says travelling is only for the rich

Tags: travel, sri lanka, ella, train, string hoppers, mirissa, milk tea, food, colombo, lamprais, curry and rice, hotels, negombo, kutthu, watalamppan, kandy, lake, nuwara, woodapple, parata, pastries, galle face hotel, beaches, seaside

Sri Lanka’s misconceptions

This summer I decided to be adventurous and thus readily agreed my friend to backpack Sri Lanka. It was a 10 days trip from the 24th April – 3rd May. Definitely not a popular tourist destinations especially for many Singaporeans. I went there with much anticipation and fear because after all, none of my friends have been there and thus my perceptions of Sri Lanka are: unsafe, unclean, chaotic, big crabs and lots of tea plantation. well. it seems like I only got one right, there are really a lot of tea plantations there:

rocky path that tea leaf pickers walk

So let me clear the misconceptions one by one by sharing my experience

FIRST: the big Sri Lanka crabs that we normally eat in Singapore are all exported out of Sri Lanka! I could hardly find big crabs there ): They are usually cooked in curry or fried and hardly have any meat. Well, at least I’m glad I’m staying in Singapore for long term and not Sri Lanka. haha. Look at how small these crabs are:

by looking at the pincers, you can tell it’s really small

SECOND: Sri Lanka is a land filled with awesome scenary, may it be highlands or seaside. I shall start with high lands first then (we spent about 6 days there cuz it’s my dear friend, weiqi’s fav)

First day of arrival, we reached Colombo’s airport at around 2am? It took us about 3.5 hours to get to Sigiriya and the next thing I knew was that we were going to climb a rock at 9am. haha. and check how big the rock is. haha! it should totally be called mountain rock or sth. it took about 3 hours up and down i think.

Sigiriya rock

the next day, we went to climb Adam’s Peak, a 2,243 metres (7,359 ft) mountain. I think it’s the second highest mountain in Sri Lanka. There is a boulder at the peak that contains an indentation resembling a footprint. For Buddhists, the footprint mark is the left foot of the Buddha, left behind when Buddha visited Sri Lanka. Muslims and Christians in Sri Lanka ascribe it to where Adam, the first Ancestor, set foot as he was exiled from the Garden of Eden. The legends of Adam are connected to the idea that Sri Lanka was the original Eden. Whatever it is, I was really glad I managed to reach the top without training. It was a horrendous 4 hrs climb with about 5000 steps to complete. We started from 2am – something I will never do it again. Moreover, because of rain, it got really misty so we couldnt really see the sunrise.

But I do really respect how the people there can climb barefoot up. On the way up, I saw like quite a number of old people and they were probably around 60-70 years old?! i guess to them, it’s a religious routine to do and they are used to it. but even as we were going up, there were also people coming down, which made me wonder what were they doing up there in the middle of the night.

THIRD: The people were really friendly, cuz i think they hardly seen asians so a lot of them were staring at us and giggling among themselves as well as saying hello to us. a lot of europeans visit sri lanka for leisure so in some parts of rural highland, they will ask if we were germans cuz they hardly seen asians i think. If not, they will first ask China then Japan then Korea. some don’t really know where Singapore is. haha. anyway back to the climb – many a times, I really wanted to give up but those strangers tried to cheer me on by saying I’m almost there (which is a lie, the climb is never ending. at every rest point, they will say just need half an hr more, but it’s seriously a lie. haha) but because we really believe it’s almost there, we didn’t give up.

ringing of bell – symbol of having complete the climb

going down… as u can see, it’s really misty

awesome scenary while coming down

it was really a beautiful sight. didnt recognise this cuz we were climbing up in the dark

So anyway, we left that place and headed to Nuwara Eliya, a really pretty place. and from Nuwara, we took a train down to ella. I would like to encourage you all to try the train. we took the train it despite having a driver. Ah! I forgot to talk about transport in Sri Lanka. People use toot toot as their main transport in Sri Lanka because the roads there can be quite narrow. For those people who don’t know what toot toot is, it looks like this:

my first time sitting a toot toot!

Anyway back to the train ride, the reason I found it interesting was due to two reasons: the awesome scenery and the different people you meet. so I urge everyone to try talk to a stranger next time, you never know what story is behind that person. So anyway because we couldnt find a seat at the second class cabin (i think there are actually more seats on 3rd class, so just buy 3rd class), I stood for like 2 hours? before people started leaving at each station. But I was glad I managed to talk to 6 people of 4 different nationalities. And one interesting fact is that the doors never close so whoever feels adventurous will stick their heads or bodies out as the train moves.

lol. they manually adjust timing of trains!

so old school right! haha

everyone sticking their heads out! haha

awesome scenary on the way to ella

honestly, i don’t think there’s much to do at ella. it’s a lot of trekking and Regina and I were simply too tired to do anymore after Adam’s peak so we just went for the Ayuverda massage there while Weiqi went to climb mini adam’s peak (crazy guy). yeah. so that’s all for the highlands. Such a longggg post. I shall write more about the south part of Sri Lanka as well as share more about the food, lodging and itinerary in the next post!

Tags: adam's peak, crabs, ella, nuwara eliya, sirigiya, sirigiya's rock, sri lanka, sri panda, tea plantation, tea plantations, train, travel, vacation

random thoughts

Saw this somewhere: “A real woman doesn’t count how many guys she had in her life, but how many times she resisted guys for the man she really loves.”

sometimes there are thoughts of what if i can never find a man i really love. everyone always say im too picky. but i feel it’s not a matter of being picky but if you really love the person, you will know it. you wont have to psyche yourself to liking that someone because it comes so naturally. but i always think what if God has granted me the gift of single hood (i tend not want to believe it. haha) maybe one day i will look back and regret all my past actions but for now, I’m happy with my state, for the longest time, i have this peace within me which I feel it’s really God given. After so long, i think I have really learnt to submit this issue into God’s hand and trust that my God is a sovereign God and He knows what’s best for me

A blank new chapter

Describes my feelings now. My next chapter is blank. blank. blank.

Recently, I have been slowly sinking into my anxiety mode again. with 4 weeks to graduation and no job found. this feeling is killing me. as someone who is so competitive and controlling, it is really killing me. I can’t help but blaming myself for not working harder when I was in year 1. I would tell my 18 year old me to start early. start preparing for the work place. start thinking of what I want to do in the future. I wonder how long will my past haunts me. I know I shouldnt keep looking back because there is nothing I can do about it. but I just can’t help it.

so engulfed in discontentment and anger towards myself. why am i not as capable as others, why can’t i be this, why can’t i be that. WHY. seems to occupy my brain. Sometimes I’m so so tired, seriously so tired, i just want to get out of singapore, escape from all these things.

sigh. so there came the topic of happiness. what is happiness? My friend said happiness is a temporary moment of being worry free. I totally agreed with him but for me, I feel happiness comes with contentment; feeling contented with whatever you have and doing what you are most passionate about! With this definition, I felt it is impossible for Singaporeans to be happy then because how many Singaporeans are actually contented. I do not want to generalize here but I dare say very few or perhaps none. The government has instilled such a competitive spirit in us since young; the idea of survival of the fittest is so ingrained within us that we are never contented. Perhaps this is one reason why we, Singaporeans always love to complain as well.

However, at the same time, I felt contentment might not be such a good thing as well. Because without contentment, there won’t be drive and hunger and thus no force to push us to be out of our comfort zone. Without contentment, there won’t be change.

It’s just that sometimes, it’s just funny how we lose happiness by trying to buy happiness. It’s like the story of a Mexican fisherman and a businessman. For those who do not know the story, here it goes:

The businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

 The businessman then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, sir”

The businessman scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But sir, how long will this all take?” To which the businessman replied, “15-20 years.” “But what then, sir?” The businessman laughed and said, “That’s the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.” “Millions, sir? Then what?” The businessman said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”



The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?”

I am not suggesting that we should all just live simply or just not plan for our future. We should plan for our future and aspire to be successful in our career or in whatever we do. But we run into trouble when the only thing we’re living for is success that is self-serving or when we are too obsessed in pursuing material satisfaction that we forget to live in the present.

This is a reminder to my friends as well as myself to never be too caught up in pursuing material needs and success that we forget the things that are most important in our lives.

Protected: the feeling of lacking

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Black Gold

FINALLY FINISH WRITING THIS! LOL.

Went to Middle East on a business study mission trip with NUS. This middle east trip has indeed been an eye opener and I have learnt so much about the culture, business environment and economy of middle east. Isn’t it intriguing how a desert landscape slowly changes to become modern cities and how they had to balance between preservation of culture and economic development.

Qatar

The people here are really very hospitable. I think it’s because very few people actually visit Qatar because as compared to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, it is still a developing country. But yet, it is rich though because of its oil. The Qataris are more conservative but they are really nice. Even though it’s pretty boring there, but yet, i think it’s quite a good place to chiong ur career. there is no tax and they lack of talent! Because of oil, the Qataris do receive quite a bit of benefits from the government. and thats the reason why the guys there are not motivated to work hard. there are more job opportunities than the supply of people there. The woman on the other hand, are more driven because they want to prove themself. and with sheik ha mozah blazing the way for females in Qatar, i feel that the Qatari women are actually very respected there. definitely not what i originally thought of. i thought the women there were oppressed. but i guess times have changed. alright. enough of their economy. i shall talk abt interesting things coupled with a few photos

Arabian Coffee. taste very different

Doha’s CBD area

presenting about female entrepreneurship in Qatar University

dressed in the abaya for presentation 

pretty desserts!

at Sheik Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani Museum with the Sheik

Abu Dhabi

Firstly, i love the hotel we stayed in. even though it is a boutique hotel, the services they provide are great! esp the free laundry per day part I never knew Abu Dhabi is like the big brother of Dubai till I went there. It is where all the money because it is rich in oil. Even though it may not be as development as Dubai, but it is definitely more sustainable than Dubai.

Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque

with the Sheik who owns the most number of camels

Sand dunes somewhere off Abu Dhabi

Masdar City – World’s first zero carbon city

Dubai

Known as the Las Vegas of the Middle East and it lived up to its name. all the magnificent hotels and buildings. even the mrt looks better!

the mrt. look how stylish it looks!

Dubai Mall! i swear its the biggest mall i have seen. and it’s near burj khalifa

Sharjah – nothing much there really.

Tags: abaya, abu dhabi, camel, camels, dubai, middle east, museum, qatar, sand dunes, sheik