*Note: So yes, I did fall off the face
of the planet, I know. And no, I never really finished blogging. Life
happens a lot faster when you hit reality. <--FACT. Lol, anyway, here
is my attempt at finishing the rest of my amazing time in Southeast
Asia. I will hopefully get another blog up to close this chapter of my
life and then reveal where I have been hiding these past few months.
Cheers!*
The next few weeks consisted of:
1.Visiting/diving at Pom-Pom Island (finally) where my uncles are hopefully building a resort. Yay!
For some reason...I have no pictures of this that I know of. Haha. Eh...Oh well. We'll save that for another day.
2.Saying
goodbye to mom and dad. Ok, so the following pictures aren't
technically of us saying goodbye...........I just didn't have anywhere
better to put these pictures. Haha.
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| Dad and I got haircuts! |
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| Roti Sardine! |
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| There
are herds of goats that roam around town...and if you hit one, you have
to pay like hundreds of RM cuz they're worth a lot or something like
that. Something to do with dowry. |
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| The only condiments you will ever need. |
3. Swimming/kayaking/chilling at Tampi-Tampi with the kids. It
was tons of fun jumping and kayaking around…I also happened to talk to a few
divers that were diving in the area…pretty sure I used to know the one guy.
Hah.
We used to come here all the time to swim and have picnics. Those were the days...sigh.
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| Baby was scared to jump. Haha. |
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| But she finally did and she looks like she's standing on the horizon...which happens to be an island. Haha |
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| Black laying one out. |
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| This girl had guts...she jumped and didn't even know how to swim. Lol. |
4.
Going to the Madai waterfall with the bakery staff on an
outing…and getting photographed by a photography teacher for some
documentary
or another…I don’t even know what it was for....Actually I think it was
for some tourism thing they were doing. He asked me to sit and model for
him...seemed legit....hahaha.
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| It was a huuuuge pot of nasi kuning |
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| More fooooooooood. |
5.
Hanging out at the dive office chilling with the staff. During our days
of being dry...Baby and I would come hang out at the office just for
fun so we could bother all the staff that were landside that day. Haha.
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| I'm not really sure why they were all behind the desk all at once...hahaha. |
6. Getting sick or I had a really bad allergy attack that kept
me from diving for a week…I’m still not really sure which it was. So...I ate. Naturally.
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| Roti tisu! |
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| Auntie Leng makes a mean hot and sour chicken! |
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| Even Baby cooked. Haha. |
7. Getting my hair cut/thinned and no one noticed due to the fact
that I have SO MUCH HAIR. But I actually really liked the haircut he gave me...and plus we got to sit in comfy chairs...haha.
8. Attempting to make an apple pie on July 4th and
failing. I’m definitely not a pie baker, that’s for sure.
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| It had so much potential. |
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| But alas. It didn't turn out as good as I would have liked. Lol. |
9. Family dive day. SUCH a good time. It started raining while
we were trying to have our lunch…and it was windy and cold. So Auntie Beth,
Baby and I jumped in the sea…and it was like a sauna. The water was so warm!
And it was super shallow too so we could lie down. And then out came the
snacks…and then I had to pee…so I peed right there…I mean, I had everything
right there. I just got done diving, I’m next to a beautiful island, I’m in the
ocean – my favorite place to be, with food and people I love, and I don’t have
to move to go pee. Clearly, I have my priorities in order. Haha. But in all
seriousness, it was one of those “Wow, I’m really blessed” moments. Couldn’t
have asked for anything more. =)
10. Diving with Roslee and Sandrix at Sipadan.
Somehow I forgot to bring my camera on these dives...probably b/c I had to babysit a bunch of divers. Haha.
11. Diving at Lahad Datu at a ship wreck. Two hour drive. Big
dogs. Huge ship wrecks. Murky water. Love family diving days with my favorite DMs!
I really thought I had taken pictures of the big dogs b/c they were so pretty! But obviously I didn't....hah.
12. Going to Kuala Lumpur…for the third time this year. Auntie
Beth, Baby and I journeyed to KL (long story how that all happened) and ate and
shopped our hearts out. We ate SOOO much good food and shopped till we dropped.
In the span of four days and three nights we managed to: buy a ton of baking
tools for Auntie Beth’s bakery, shop and spend money, get more baking supplies,
eat durian and mangosteen finally, buy touristy stuff, shop some more, walk a
lot, meet up with Baby’s cousins Auntie Beth’s side of the family (I haven’t
seen them in SO long), eat TONS of amazing food (we ordered like 10-20 dishes
on average for only 6-7 of us…I’m not even kidding), and shop some more. I also
got to meet up with my Raja Tolek brother-from-another-mother and his awesome
girlfriend, Ally….where we ate some more after I had just finished eating a
20-dish meal with my family. Needless to say, I gained all the weight back that
I had lost during diving. Sigh.
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| Love me some Korean food! |
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| Shaved ice |
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| Rendang and ketupat |
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| Mango popsicles! |
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| Durian coffee!! It was awful. Haha. |
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| REAL durian!! |
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| SO GOOD. |
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| Nom nom nom. |
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| She was obviously excited to eat mangosteen. |
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| Mangosteen = superfood |
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| I <3 mangosteen in case you couldn't tell. |
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| This was just a portion of our day. |
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| Chendol! |
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| Nonya food is the best evarrrr. |
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| So I didn't realize that boba places do this now...but you can order how much sugar and ice you want added in there. So cool! |
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| Their desserts doe. Mmm. |
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| Meringue cake. |
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| I think this was...tiramisu cake. |
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| Bread pudding cake. |
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| This was just the first round.....(this was the 20-dish meal) |
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| The dessert was so cute. Sigh. |
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| And then after the 20-dish meal with my family, Raja Tolek brought me here to eat...again!! Lol. |
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| As
much as we fight, he's like a big brother to me and has given me so
much encouragement all throughout these years. So blessed to have him in
my life!! |
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| Oh haaaay KL. |
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| I
don't know whether it was because we were really hungry or what...but
this was one of the best Japanese restaurants I've had in a really long
time. |
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| Chocolate covered potato chips. Don't hate. |
13. Eating a lot of yummy Ramadhan food from the Ramadhan
Bazaar. Oh yeah, so it was Ramadhan…one of the holiest months for Muslims where
they fast from dawn till dusk and only eat after the sun has gone down.
Therefore, there are TONS of food stands open during the afternoon for people
to buy food to “break the fast” at dusk. The food here is SO incredibly yummy.
I always joke that it’s the BEST fast food ever and it’s so cheap too. LOVE it.
But yes, Ramadhan is not all about the food, so I have a lot of respect for
those that “puasa” or “fast” during the day.
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| Traffic jam in front of all the food stalls! |
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| Nom nom nom nom. |
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| Always get your air bandung at Toto Bill's stand. |
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| It's so CUTE. |
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| There's yummy pulut hitam in it!! |
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| Nasi kerabu is probably my favorite....even more so than nasi kuning |
14. Overnight diving trip to Mataking with the family. Our Pana
Team, which consisted of Aku, Auntie Beth, Kian, Baby, myself, Jef, Roslee, and
Basir, all set out to dive around the area, where some of us did three dives
each day with only two tanks…yeah, def used one tank for two dives…don’t try
that at home, kids. We had tons of fun diving in the area and even did a night
dive…annnnnnd we’ll leave it at that. Ahem…and THEN, we got to stay in this
secluded part of the island where there’s only two chalets built so far of the
resort (long story)…but it’s SO nice to just relax there. We brought a TON of
food with us…cuz that’s how we roll…so we def didn’t go hungry. There was a
huge storm that rolled in and Basir and the boys were worried that the boat
would wash up on shore and get stuck or ruin the engine b/c the wind was
blowing every which direction and the waves were really big. They kept on
checking on the boat every 5 minutes to make sure it was still there/not coming
closer to shore and were talking about sleeping on the boat during the night if
it got really bad…and the boat we had taken wasn’t the super covered boat (that
probably didn’t make sense to you AT all…sorry…haha). The wind was blowing
REALLY hard and it was raining REALLY hard and everyone was just sitting there
watching the boat from our chalet…shining the light every 5 mins to check on it.
Anyway, they finally decided to take turns watching the boat. I ended up
staying up with Roslee for a few hours while he watched the boat…thankfully the
storm died down a bit by the time he woke Basir up. But, the boat ended up being
fine by morning. Woot for adventures!
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| Yes, the majority of that is food. |
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| We're fatties, I know. |
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| Sleeping Giant in the horizon. |
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| Mmmm. So peaceful. |
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| He was actually really friendly... |
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| Getting ready for our night dive. |
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| Our chalets we got to stay in. =) |
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| Panggang ikan is pretty much the best ever. |
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| Discussing the boat. |
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| Just kidding...Roslee was stuffing his face per usual. Lol. |
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| Basir, our boatman, was really worried though. Lol. |
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| Found a baby lobster for Baby! Hahaha. |
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| So,
big brother, Jeremy, sent me a pic of his watermelon rind (left) ....so
Baby and I decided to send this one back to him (right). Lol. |
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| Diving and islands...what more could you want? |
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| Spent our surface interval jumping from the boat. |
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| Tried to teach her how to dive into the water...haha. |
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| Why is my back so...straight? |
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| Dead man's dive. Haha. |
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| Cousins for life yo. |
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| The craziest and bestest DM evarrrrrr. |
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| I <3 these ppl so much. |
15. Diving some more with Roslee and Baby. We’ve had some
interesting guests come through. Sometimes I wonder how these people ever got
their license or what kind of instructor let them pass….SMH. And then you have
the whiners…the ones that whine about their equipment not being perfect. C’mon
people!! This equipment has been used by countless of people for years…a little
leak isn’t gonna hurt you, I promise!! Lol. But, it’s always fun to talk to
guests and listen to their traveling stories. I always say that some of the
best conversations I’ve had in general are the ones during our surface
intervals or conversations late at night. No lie.
I have so many stories now to tell about the various guests
we’ve had over the last few weeks…some experienced, some very new divers (those
are the worst), some horrible divers, and some awesome divers. Despite it all,
it’s been very rewarding and I’ve learned so much from each dive.
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| Roslee took over. Haha. |
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| A battle wound from....wait for it........coral. Hahaha. |
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| White spot anemone shrimp |
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| Nudibranch |
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| Nudibranch with a cool hairdo...haha. |
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| Leaf-fish |
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| Turtleeeee |
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| Garden eel |
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| Mantis shrimp. Those things are lightning fast! |
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| Some fishy business going on under there... |
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| Hereeee fishy fishy fishy!!!! |
16. Working on a project for my uncle. I like to take my
[underwater] camera down with us on fun dives (dives where I don’t have to
watch people like a hawk)…and by some miracle, I’ve gotten some cool shots over
the years with my little Canon Powershot point-and-shoot. Aku asked me to pick
out 30 or so of my pictures so he could print them out and hang them at the
jetty where the majority of the tourists walk through. Humbling and yet, so
exciting! They turned out great…I’m still not so sure about the orange matting
around it…haha, and my paper cutting skills (for the captions) are lacking in
the straight-line area…but other than that, I’m thrilled that those pictures
are finally being put to use!
17. My life is complete. I have seen all my diving friends in
this area at least once during my stay here.
It’s harder than you think.
Apparently I didn't document all these things though. Haha.
18. The craziness during Hari Raya or Eid, as the rest of the Muslim world calls it. So much happened....
Hari
Raya/Eid is the "New Year" for Muslims and they celebrate with
firecrackers/fireworks, breaking the fast, and the next day they invite
family and friends to come over and eat and go visit other people
houses. It's like one big party...but it lasts for days.
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| The naughty cousins. |
So
Auntie Beth runs a bakery...if you didn't catch that fact beforehand.
The last batch of pictures are mixed together...so just read the
captions.
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| Angry Birds! It's a big hit over here. Lol. |
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| So many of them!! |
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| The bosses watching the surveillance camera...lol. |
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| I taught Auntie Beth how to make her own pizza dough! |
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| Pretty much bought out the store's stock of tomato sauce and cheese. Lol |
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| Sometimes we just got lazy to cook and got Hari Raya food instead....haha. |
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| Mmmm satay. |
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| It's a fuzzy dog!! Angel likes me...she bites other ppl. Haha. |
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| So
on the left is a normal size taro root and on the right is a very VERY
large taro root! Lol. I could barely lift it up with one hand. |
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| Baby and I liked to kacau the bakery workers...but then we bought them popsicles. Haha. |
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| Kidnapped Roslee and made him go up to the Bukit...he almost died b/c he's so out of shape. Hahaha. |
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| It was a fun day, though. |
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| Such a beautiful sight of BCDs. |
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| Mahadir our fearless boatman! |
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| This is my office - topside. |
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| A crowed boat makes for fun times... |
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| Para-para-paradise. |
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| With Yan...the best boatman on our crew and a solid guy all around. |
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| With the surveyor... |
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| Yan dived down to place some markers down there. |
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| Just a little daily business going on. |
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| Yan's son is so cute!! Haha. |
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| Ketupat and longtong... |
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| ...which is compressed rice cakes in banana leaves... |
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| Sandrix's daughter is sooooo cute. |
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| Um...yeah....that's how they party over here...Brian drove 8 hrs with all this beer in the back of his pick-up truck. LOL. |
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| Mulpi
was the unlucky boat driver that had to work on Hari Raya...but he was a
good sport and still wore his new clothes after coming from the mosque.
Haha. |
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| Cousins bonding.... |
So we went to go visit Jef's house the second day of Hari Raya.
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| Wong
Wong with the red-eyed cat. (Ok, so the cat's eyes aren't really
red...but somehow the flash managed to make them look like that...lol) |
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| I think the cat was scared of her. Lol. JK. |
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| It's tradition to serve Hari Raya desserts/snacks and drinks when people visit you! |
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| The family...and extended family. |
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| ...and the cat. |
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| Jef's youngest daughter is so cute! |
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| I think she was the cousin....of someone....lol. |
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| With the girls! |
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| I'm their adopted daughter...haha. |
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| They were so wriggly!! |
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| Me and Basir...and Baby's face...haha! |
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| Cousinssss! |
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| So we bought them all a ton of sparklers and things that go ka-pow. |
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| Even Basir played with them. Haha. |
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| She is so naughty!! |
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| So baby you're a firework? lol. |
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| They were lighting them from the torches outside. Lol |
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| Milo ice cream is better than reg chocolate ice cream...actually, Milo anything is better than chocolate anything. |
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| There
was a huge pothole that everyone kept on getting stuck in...and every
time I went around town that day a new car was stuck in there. Lol. |
During
Hari Raya, many of Auntie Beth's workers suddenly get "sick" and she's
always short on staff...so all the cousins had to help. Lol.
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| All hands on deck!! |
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| Auntie Beth in the cake room. |
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| Auntie Belinda and I told them to make a Candy Crush cake since the game is so popular. Lol |
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| Isn't it cute?!? |
A
few days before I left we threw a HUGE party...the first of two parties
for Baby and Kian since their birthdays are only days apart.
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| It was a flurry of cooking...there was so much food to prep that we had to use the floor....kampung style yo. Promise we didn't actually make anything on the floor. |
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| I need to get an industrialized mixer...things go so much faster that way. Lol. |
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| Remember how I said that all cousins had to help out at the bakery? |
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| Yeah...they made me learn how to make these bad boys in a jiffy. Lol. |
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| Angry Bird mini-cakes! |
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| Love both of these Kakak!! |
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| Wong Wong decided to demonstrate to me his split...SMH. |
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| Nephew and Auntie. Hahaha. |
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| Cakes are in high demand during Hari Raya. |
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| So many to make!! |
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| Cousin love. haha. |
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| The start of the underwater cake. |
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| No, Brian!! You can't eat it yet!! |
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| Preparing the fondant. |
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| They were supposed to be shredding the chicken...instead they were eating it. Or at least Wong Wong was. Lol. |
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| Rolling out the fondant. |
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| I had to get them back on track...snicker snicker. |
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| You can't really see it...but she wrote CHEN in it. Lol. |
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| We made these cute little fondant sea creatures one day beforehand. |
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| Blueeeee. |
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| Decorating. |
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| Auntie Beth is the master!! |
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| Put the DMs on the cake too. Haha. Keri, Roslee, Jef, and Sandrix. |
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| And the Pua family on the other side! |
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| Sometimes being the boss-lady means you're on two phones at once. Hahaha. |
A few shots from the actual party....I had more pictures...but I think I was too lazy to edit them. Lol.
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| The famous "Fei-Fei Tiao" (I know I'm butchering the spelling of that...) |
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| Friends since grade school!! |
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| Divemasters unite!!!! |
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| Toto Bill! He's pretty much a "Jack-of-all-trades" |
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| The teacher and the student. Which is which? |
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| Pretty much siblings. |
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| Just hanging out with the aunties... |
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| Karaoke time! |
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| Gila time....hahahaha. |
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| So...they didn't actually eat this cake....LOL. |
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| B/c they made another cake and ate IT. Idk why Auntie Lor and Beth are the ones cutting it....lol. |
Towards the end of my time there...we all suddenly had this fascination with UNO...and played it constantly. Lol.
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| Jef got a certificate recognizing him as being a PADI member for 10 years. |
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| Congrats Papa Jef!!! |
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| Donny, my favorite receptionist of the male species...mainly b/c he's the only one that's a guy, the rest are girls....haha. |
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| Rasman...our little apprentice. Haha. |
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| Thanks for the good times, dude! |
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| We decided to get some snacks... |
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| I don't even know what I got...haha. |
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| But these were good...waffle hotdogs. Haha. |
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| Got to eat one of the Kak's famous soto. |
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| SO GOOD. |
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| Yeah...we weren't done celebrating Hari Raya!! |
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| So this is a fruit called Tarap...which is only found in Borneo |
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| And it's really good. That is all you need to know. |
The
night before I left I made the gang go out for one last kick at our
favorite martabak restaurant...Since it's open 24/7 we went at
like...midnight, and I don't regret it. Haha.
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| Mmmmm teh tarik |
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| Roti Telur!! |
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| Soon Lee with our Roti Tisu! |
After six grand months of traipsing around Southeast Asia, it was finally time to go.
I've decided that nothing EVER goes right when I fly through Hong Kong. This time, it was in MY favor!! Haha.
Somehow I arrived extremely late in HK even though we left on time from
KK. I blame the typhoon that was blowing around the Philippines. Anyway,
a Malysian Airlines representative escorted me and made me run me from
one building to the next and through security in lightning fast speed
and then we proceeded to fast-walk/run through the entire airport to see
if I could make my flight back home. The whole time she's telling me my
options if I don't make it since she's getting updates that they're
about to close the door of the plane. My options are: get on the
stand-by list for the next flight in two hrs...along with 30-something
other people OR they put me in a hotel that night and I take the next
flight out. Both of which weren't
too bad. But we still made a
run for it. I was handed off like a relay baton at the gate and they
proceeded to print another ticket for me and made me go through another
security check (that I wasn't expecting). Sat down and
realized..........THEY UPGRADED ME TO BUSINESS
CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It happened so fast
that I didn't realize it until I looked around me as I sat down. LOL.
14
hrs of awesomeness. But...they STILL managed to lose my luggage b/c it
was such a quick turnaround time. Sigh. It evened out. Me running
through the airport like a mad woman and getting my bags late = business
class. Meh.
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| So many buttons to press...I felt like a kid again and I had to try hard to behave properly and not press them all. Lol |
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| We had cubicles...whoohoo!! |
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| And a bigger TV screen. |
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| And I got REAL blanket. Not those awful thin ones that don't do anything for you. Haha. |
|
And
that concludes my awesome trip in Southeast Asia of 2013. Check back
for another post later as I review and reminisce the trip and thank
everyone...and then...if you're lucky, there might be a post disclosing
where I've been hiding for the past few months. HAH. Cheers everyone! =)
