Dear friends in Singapore,
This is my brother’s dog Mika. She’s been nothing but sweet, affectionate and loyal, but my brother and his family are moving to Chicago for a few years and unfortunately, 9-year-old Mika can’t go along. They’re desperate to find a good home for the energetic girl and if you would like to invite Mika into your family even for just a year or two, or know of someone who would, please, please get in touch! You can email Wen at ngoei.wq@gmail.com.
Thanks so very much!
Categories: Uncategorized
I love making friends on my travels but it mostly happens when I’m alone. So this work trip was the perfect setting to get acquainted with some of the people in my temporary neighbourhood. (N.B. The names are made up but the problems are real)
Let’s see…there was Jeff the sushi chef, whose son got into drugs and then cleaned-up and is now taking a year out before going to college, there was Gary the cab driver, who hates kids and likes to go fishing and sees 8-footer tiger sharks in the waters close to my hotel pretty often, there was Malcolm the surf instructor, whose 70-something-year-old mom teaches yoga and is completely “gnarly” (whatever that means), and there was Sheldon the bell boy, who is terrified of the cold, so he wears wet suits during his morning surf sessions, and he thinks I’m incredible just for being able to live through D.C.’s winters.
Besides the friendly chat, Malcolm lent me a board, took me out surfing and pushed me onto waves so I wouldn’t have to kill myself paddling for them, Jeff regularly cut up some fruit, which I didn’t order, for me after my meal, Gary gave me a free ride and Sheldon, well Sheldon noted my travel details after I only casually mentioned it in conversation and made sure I got to the airport on time. All in all, they made my work trip warm and pretty enjoyable.
Categories: Life · Travel Stories
Tagged: hawaii, kauai, travel friends
This is not a crime scene. The fella in the picture is not dead (I saw him heave a sigh of irritation at me and other tourists taking pictures of him from afar). He’s in a food coma after the very big meal he had the night before. The poor guy is an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal who likes to be alone except in mating season. Part of the reason his kind are few is that tourists used to get up close to them when they’d hang out on the beach, causing them to escape back into the water with full bellies and get eaten by sharks.
So, now, whenever security guards or beach front hotel staff spot a seal early in the morning, they cordon off a large area for the seals to relax in the sun until they’re good and ready to go back into the water.
P.S. I’ve updated the trivia post below, if you’d like to see it.
Categories: Seen and Heard
Tagged: hawaii, hawaiian monk seal, kauai, Poipu Beach
From the shuttle bus driver today:
-The tallest mountain from top to bottom is the Big Island in Hawaii. Everest is the highest in elevation.
-The state fish is Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, which is also the longest word in the Hawaiian language.
-Kauai is basically the “movie island.” You’ve seen in it South Pacific, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong (the remake) and Six Days and Seven Nights. The town in Lilo & Stitch was modeled after a town called Hanapepe, which is located on the other side of the island from where I am.
Categories: Travel Stories
Tagged: hanapepe, kauai, lilo n stitch, tallest mountain
This is the image of the day for me. I love how the clouds are stacked on one side, looking like a snow-covered mountain far away. Also, I like how the sun’s rays look like a lamp turned on from up above.
I caught a mosquito in one hand this morning. But catching waves on my boogey board? Not so much. :s
Categories: Travel Stories
Tagged: boogey boarding, kauai, Poipu Beach
Got to Kauai, one of Hawaii’s less touristy islands, last night. Here are my thoughts so far…
1. Hawaii has such strong associations with the beach in my mind that I forgot about its mountains. And its rainforests.
2. Apart from its incredible waves, the beach here is comparable in appearance to a lot of other less hyped up beaches.
3. The sand is orange like those you’d find in a sandbox in a park. I expected it to be rough but my feet melted right into it.
4. I actually think Kauai’s main beauty is on its inside. Lush foliage. Broad dark green leaves with brightly-coloured flowers bursting forth in between.
5. I was on the beach thinking I’d blog from there but then I felt like an idiot with a laptop on the beach so I put it away. Also, I couldn’t really see the screen from all that glare.
6. I didn’t spend enough time in the water cos’ it made me dizzy bobbing up and down. It’s boogey boarding or surfing from now on.
7. I hope I have at least a little time to play once the meeting gets started up proper.
8. Watch out for my twitness on the top right hand corner.
9. Going to try to stay awake now. okBYE!
Categories: Travel Stories
Tagged: hawaii, kauai
I promise to do better with videos but for now, in case, like me, you’ve never seen dog sledding, I thought I’d share what I saw every morning in France …
more about "Dog Sledding", posted with vodpod
Categories: Seen and Heard
Tagged: alpe d'huez, dog sledding, huskies dog sledding
was being able to enjoy the free flowing vin chaud while watching all the instructors from école du ski français ski or snowboard down one of the mountains carrying torches.
Here’s what I managed to capture on my pathetic little digicam:
Blazing down…
Snaking down…
more about "skinnypinny – 050.flv", posted with vodpod
Arriving at the bottom
more about "skinnypinny – 055.flv", posted with vodpod
None of the above does the event any justice but I promise it was pretty exciting to watch the little glimmer of light at the top of the mountain grow longer and more dazzling as more and more skiers joined the parade.
I have no idea how they all got to the bottom in one piece with so little light, since a lot of them had their torches blown out by the end. I wonder how many of them fell in between. Probably none at all.
Categories: Seen and Heard
Tagged: alpe d'huez, ecole du ski francais, new year's eve torch ceremony, skiing at night, vin chaud
Shot from the top of my bunny slope
DC has been experiencing sub-freezing temperatures the past few days but instead of wishing for a little bit of tropical weather (which I’ll soon get on a work trip to Hawaii anyway, hehe), I find myself longing to relive that snowboarding trip I just took over the holidays.
Our group of 6 headed for Alpe d’Huez in the central French Alps from Dublin on St. Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day). And from then on it was snowboarding, eating, sleeping, drinking and more snowboarding!
I’d never been to a giant ski resort before and this first experience was quite magical. The entire place was covered in white and carnival-like french music blasted overhead while everyone, big or small, played like children on their skis and snowboards. Lifts of all kinds that brought people in all their colourful outfits up and down the slopes, from afar looked like assembly lines in a toy factory. And at almost the same time every morning, two packs of huskies excitedly raced by the same spot, pulling their sleds (and owners) behind them.
A couple of us who were less experienced at winter sports took lessons at the reputable Ecoles du Ski Français for a whole week, which proved worthwhile at the end when we were able to turn both left and right (unlike Zoolander)and play follow the leader, all on slopes much steeper and higher up than when we began. We even got little certificates like report cards to recognize our achievements!
Here’s me on a board, possibly before a fall… (no, I am not wearing oven mitts!)
The instructors were mostly French but spoke adequate English to get their instructions across and were, for the most part, pretty good teachers.
I also learnt about Après-skiing, which I had mistakenly heard as Apparate-skiing and was quite excited about my very own Harry Potter experience. Alas, all it meant was going out for drinks after skiing, no magic involved (unless you count the effects of alcohol).
By the end of the 6 days, we were all battered and bruised but already starting to plan where and when we’d go snowboarding next!
Categories: Travel Stories
Tagged: alpe d'huez, ecole du ski francais, snowboarding in the french alps
My mom made my sister and I quit when I was 8 and she was 6, pretty old to still be sucking our thumbs. She did it successfully with the promise of stickers at the end. They weren’t even very nice stickers. Not furry or bubbly or the scratch N sniff kind. I don’t even remember what they looked like. But sticker-collecting was big in those days and any opportunity to add to our albums was very welcome. So we both quit, pretty much cold turkey.
This confession would’ve been really hard to get out of me if not for the fact that I met 3 cousins (not mine) in their twenties on my recent snowboarding trip who openly sucked their thumbs at the dinner table. The first time I spotted one of them doing it, I thought I was mistaken. The girl, we’ll call her Sally, used her other hand to cup the one in use to disguise the deed. But when I saw that familiar shiny wet thumb, bent slightly backwards come out of her mouth, I knew I wasn’t seeing things.
It happened again and again. First her, then the others. While this was going on, I looked around at their mothers. There was no reaction. I looked at my friends, they didn’t seem to notice. I didn’t understand. I wanted to jump up and scream and point but I couldn’t (too old for that). So I waited until later to tell my friends. To my dismay, they didn’t seem to think it was as freaky as I did. All I got was a shrug or two and maybe some giggles.
How come nobody else thinks sucking your thumb openly in front of strangers in your twenties is completely… I can’t even think of a word for it. I can only liken it to biting my toenails at the dinner table. Surely someone would at least offer a frown then?
Categories: Life
Tagged: thumbsuckers, thumbsucking
