Piano Guys - Somewhere Over the Rainbow

"Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true."
- Lyrics from Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz)

This song always brings out my childhood memories. I do like the Piano Guys version of the song; full of hope and sunshine in a mellow way.

Happy Feet 2 - Brings Out My Happy

Bill: “What is it?”
Will: "I have no idea."
Bill: "Wow. What's it for?"
Will: “Perhaps it’s a momentary relief from the existential terrors of existence.”
Bill: “Oh. What?”
Will: “It brings out my happy!”
- excerpt from Happy Feet 2

Life is What Happens to You

"Life is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans" - John Lennon's Beautiful Boy

Mr Lennon's pearls of wisdom to his dearest son. And isn't it true? Always remember while planning for future, you are also living for now. And smile to the thought that "Every day in every way, it is getting better and better".

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Pure bliss: Watching my mum as she fervently makes our favourite zongzi 粽子. I can feel all the love tightly packed in each bite. I will always be your loyal assistant and follower.

Eat, Play, Laze in Bali: Seminyak

As I continue my journey in Bali in search of places to LAZE, where would be the best place but the beach? Seminyak located along the west coastal of Bali north of Kuta. There are less crowds here than Kuta and the beach comes with clean sand, strong waves, blue sea and plenty of sunlight. Actually too much sunlight so I normally spend the hot afternoon indoors with air-con on full blast.

Sunset bay: People come to the beach for the sun but not me. I used to tell my friends that I am solar powered; I can run really fast when the sun is up (toward shelters of course). So all my photos are taken either in the early morning or evenings.









Reflection of being: The beach is like a mirror reflecting the clear blue sky. It would be good to sit and reflect upon oneself. But I am not a deep person so I daydream instead.





Sand Art: When I traveled alone, I tended to notice more of the surrounding nature. The colors of the sand, little creatures drawing on the beach, the white sea foams.



Catching the waves: The thing I like about Bali beach is the shallow water. The waves are strong but not high. Great for surfing amateurs or daze sitting in the water without worries.







Umadasa: I stay in this guest house along Jalan Arjuna. Only five minutes to the beach and the room comes with a clean comfortable bed, fantastic air-conditioning and good English breakfast.

The Biggest Mistake in My Life

HA. Like I'm gonna tell. How would anyone share this?


Oh SHUT UP you song!!! Stop reminding me.

Eat, Play, Laze in Bali: Ubud

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia is a 2006 memoir by American author Elizabeth Gilbert. I remembered reading this book years back and sighing ahhh.. she found love in the end, how romantic. Fast forward to date, little bubbles popped. With a clearer head, I had summarized my 3 month vacation as Eat, Play, Laze instead. Eating in South Korea with my sister. Playing and meeting strangers in China and of cos nothing happened in Bali as I spent time lazing under the sun.

And Bali is really a good place to love laze. With good sunshine, green open paddy fields, clean beach with blue sea and lotsa time on hand, it is a place to find one's inner peace. Who would not have fall in love here WITH the place?

Puri Bayu Guest House: A nice and clean Balinese guest house sets beside the rice paddy field with a great sunset view. Dewi is a great host and I enjoyed the breakfasts made by her. It was great lying on the divan out on the veranda, reading a book, enjoying the occasional breeze and the rustling of the grass.







Vicious cycle: Here I participated in an interesting food chain. Human > rice > duck > human.



Campuhan Ridge Walk: A 2 hours quiet walk in the early morning through the tall alang-alang grass in search for more rice fields. Blue sky, green grass, soft breeze, sunshine and beautiful me. Ahh.. Ubud, I'm in love with you...One Love - Loveholic.

Remember to bring an umbrella as it get hot towards noon. I followed The little pink journal blog to find the trail.









Fields of Gold: May is harvesting time and you can see farmers busy among the many rice fields along Jalan Bisma.









Spiritual Balinese: Bali is a land of thousand temples. You can see temples in almost every household. Local people pray and lay offerings on the street daily to their Gods so remember to watch your step.





On the monkey trail: Down Jalan Monkey forest to visit the lazy monkeys and up Jalan Hanoman in search of restaurants with rice paddy view (there are plenty).

Memories of Hokkaido - Where the flowers bloom

Was attending my friend's wedding last weekend and saw a photo of us in her wedding montage. The photo was taken in Hokkaido when we are still young and carefree. Now she is someone else' wife, best wishes for her always.









I still remembered the song by Sting - Fields of Gold.

Perth 2008 Family Trip

Found a long lost photo album while clearing up my portable disks. Memories of the family trip to Perth in 2008 flooded back to me. It was the first trip that my sister and I had co-sponsored my parents on. It marked our independence and from then onward, we had been sponsoring annual family trips. :) I love my parents and is thankful to them for bring me and my siblings up so well. Now my sister, brother and I are grown up, independent yet responsible.  We still share our daily grinds, laugh and joke around and split our responsibility in the family. Looking through the album reminded me of a song by Dan Seals called Lullaby.

"Sleep, lay me down, hold me closely in your arms
And I will close my eyes
Please, promise me that when I wake up from my dreams
You'll be there by my side

Love, if you say you won't slip away
Then I can go dreaming of forever more
But I won't rest until
I know that you'll be here in the morning by my side"

... And I know you will all be by my side no matter what happens.

冒险娘之旅 China 发票 in Restaurant

During my china trip, I noticed a lot of customers would request 发票, tax invoices from the restaurants. Out of curiosity, I asked my new found Shanxi friend why would they want the 发票. Personally I thought this practice was a waste of paper. Sometime the 发票 came in a few pieces of paper. My friend explained that it was 公共义务, a citizen's duty to prevent the restaurant from avoiding tax. Uh-ha, that explained all. Once a 发票 was issued, the China government would be notified of the purchase, liked GST in Singapore. What a righteous thing to do, I thought. Then I asked further, if the restaurant refused to issue one, what would they do? Do they report them perhaps? The answer was funny, if no 发票 was given, they would then asked for a discount for the meal. And they would preferred a discount then a 发票 obviously. Duh...