rachy♥

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Goodbye 2008! 9:37 PM

It's really sad to see another year fly by so fast.

Thank you to everyone who made my year :)

2h 2min + 1s to 2009!

Monday, December 8, 2008

bali 5:45 PM

Bali was super much fun! A thousand times more awesome then expected :) With Indonesia being a third-world country, I kind of expected Bali to be really bad, but I LOVE WESTIN it's the coolest hotel I've ever stayed in! It's at Nusa Dua (the southern part of Bali), which is the touristy villa area with lots of hotels owning separate parts of the enormous stretch of white-sand Nusa Dua beach. And because the beach is hotel property, they clean it everyday and so the sand and sea water is absolutely pristine and clear and blue and super lovely! :D

< I told you the beach was gorgeous!

And the hotel is ginormous it's this giant villa with super decor and super service, and the beds (which are copyrighted, seriously) are SUPER COMFY beyond belief. I just whooped and rolled and jumped on it for 15 minutes the first time I stepped into the hotel room :) And the food is really nice there too, for dinner on the 4 nights there respectively we had Hamabe Japanese Resaurant, Heavenly Residence, Portraits and a poolside barbecue!
All were within the hotel with the exception of Heavenly Residence which is AWESOME BEYOND BELIEF! It's a giant villa situated on a cliff that overlooks a private beach and the water is pure blueness that extends for miles and without a speck in the horizon! And there's this cool infinity pool which is a swimming pool that looks like it's overflowing because the water flows over the wall at the edge above the ocean so it's looks like the swimming pool water is flowing into the ocean :O and we walked around the villa it's super gigantic and gorgeous like those luxury homes you see in the maganizines AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And then the best part was the sunset it was so beautiful like one of those sights you never forget the whole sky was painted pink and then red and then darkness (I sound like Josie here). The colour contrast actually wasn't that obvious but in photographs the sunset looked amazing. And we had dinner at the porch at the edge of the cliff and I love the grilled chicken!!

Note: This picture was taken from the website.

And also I love the swimming pool at Westin! You get to play volleyball, basketball and water polo in the water, and there's this super-fast/ super-duper fun water slide and to get there you walk inside a waterfall! + You can also spot lots of squirrels by the pool :D

On Friday we went to Gunung Batur (an active volcano!), but we didn't really go up the volcano, just to Penelokan (which is the usual point where toursists view the volcano, and Lake Batur in the volcano's inner caldera). The view is beautiful but of course it would have been much nicer had we been able to go up the volcano, only to do that you have to hike for at least 1.5 hours :( No thanks!

<Dora the Explorer!

Saturday was the best for me :D We went white-water rafting at the Agung River (meaning "beautiful") which was SUPER FUN! It was an 11km course along class 2&3 rapids which got you drenched from head to toe but was absolutely exhilarating especially when you're one of the last to set out but beat almost everyone else to end up second :) And the best part is that it's not as safety-obsessed as Singapore (although the guides are very good, mine caught me before I fell into the water. Twice.) so you get all wet and swooshed around and crash into rocks and stuff but it's awesome!!!! And near the end we jumped into the river it was so cold but so fun! And all you have to do is lie flat and the river will carry you along (we wore life-jackets) :D Each raft held 6 people (including the guide - our's was called Dena) I was with my dad, Janie, and two other people called Bernard and Sher Hui (who were very fun and nice!). Aunty Pheck Luan, Uncle Ching Sun, Shana and my sister were in another raft. It was super fun splashing complete stangers! We would use our paddles and sploosh the river water at other rafts that drew near, whether you knew the people or not >:) And they did it back to you! But our guide Dena is undeniably the best splasher on the Agung River!! (cue evil laughter)

The Cheongs and Uncle Tians arrived on Saturday too and we went to the beach to do Water Sports!! I did parasailing + jet skiing + banana boating and it got me on a super adrenaline high :D Parasailing was SUPER! We rode a speedboat to this floating platform further away from shore and climbed on board the platform. And then the parasailing guides just put the harness on me and made me go first :O Without asking! Janie and I both had to tandem with one of them each because the landing required you to pull either side of the parachute according the the landing guy's instructions (which required strength + a non-freaking-out state of mind). But my dad, Uncle Tians and Uncle Ching Sun got to go themselves. The experience is breathtaking! Parasailing = Being attached to a parachute by a harness and being pulled along by a speedboat. At the start when you get swooshed up into the air, the most appropriate thing for you to do is scream your head off. Then when you see how pretty the beach and ocean look from up high and you feel the wind whipping against your skin, it's time to start whooping and screaming "HIIII!!!" to the others staring at you from the tiny speck of floating platform :D
And after we all went up, my dad has this wonderful idea to jump down (since he had a life jacket) into the ocean for a swim. I TOTALLY FREAKED OUT! When I was younger, my mom told me stories about how you should never swim out in the ocean because it's really dangerous, especially when there are floating platforms, because even very strong swimmers get caught in the occean currents and if you get swept under the platform you can't come up for air and you drown. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And I was right! It took him a lot of effort to swim to the edge of the platform with the tyres (the edge which he jumped off from didn't have tyres and he could have cut himself trying to get up) and then he could barely get up/ hang up so my uncles had to help pull him up, because the floating platform was quite thick/high. I was so scared! But in the end we all made it safely back to shore :)

Then I went jet skiing (for a very sort while with Uncle Nick because rental time was almost up), and then onto the banana boat with J, Alyssa, Uncle Nick and my sister (in seating order). It was much more fun than it looks (looks quite mild), and the speed boat driver gave us a really long ride! The funnest part is when the speed boat turns, because then the banana boat crashes through the edge of the speed boat's trail and you get drenched with water. (A very bad explanation but I hope you get it.) And Janie fell into the water!! I was so freaked out (again!) That was at one of the turnings where the water was drenching us, so I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes I saw J flying off the boat with only her hands gripping onto the handle, and after I blinked more water out of my eyes, the next time I opened them she was gone!!! But then we spotted her head bobbing around behind us so the speed boat driver turned around and we pulled her out of the water. Phew! What a day of heart-stopping action!

On Sunday we went to the Elephant Safari Park (while some - including my sister - adjourned to go shopping :/ ) which was also lots of fun! The elephant show was pretty cool, but the best part was the 40 min elephant ride through the jungle! Janie and I sat together on a 26-year-old female elephant called Roxy, with our 'elephant taxi driver' called Hady. She was really big and very hungry, and kept on stopping to rip off branches to eat :D The rocking motion was surprisingly soothing - it cured Janie's back ache and put Timmy to sleep! We also got to feed the elephants with bamboo shoots which the keepers were very generous with. We also fed them bananas and apples Aunty Pick Hoon brought along from the Capsicum Cafe buffet breakfast (with permission!). The Safari Park is really big and houses 27 elephants! (which poop/pee a lot) Their poop are the size of large coconuts and are very fiborous, and they pee like a tap (a lot gushes out - see below).

Btw, there's a much grosser, very sharp picture of the elephant's butt mid-pee. But I shan't put it up in case you already feel like belching.

At night was the poolside barbecue and I got a free french manicure/ hair-braiding/ tattoo! (fake, of course) But not those cartoony kind - it's a really pretty butterfly thing (picture coming soon). Which was a great end to our stay in Bali. The barbecue food was pretty good too, and we watched Mama Mia! projected onto a big screen :D Janie, Alyssa and Aunty Pick Hoon also won our table first prize in the family games - a set of pretty Balinese baskets :)

Soon after that it was goodbye to the Cheongs + Uncle Tians and we left for the airport for a midnight flight (I woke up at 3 pm today!), and I must say, for such a wonderful place, Bali's Denpasar airport is highly disappointing/awful/gross/disorganised/depressing/cockroach-infested. And to everyone out there NEVER TAKE LION AIR. It is the absolute worst flight I have ever been on, and it's even more cheapo than budget carriers.

Mommy's coming home from Taiwan in 23 hours' time!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

10:58 AM

It's been ages since I last posted :)

Holidays have been pretty fun so far except for missing my mom I WANT TO BE IN TAIPEI! but anyway on Thursday my dad/sis/I + 2 families of relatives are going to Bali and it's going to be really fun!

I heart my cousins/aunts/uncles like nobody's business :D :D :D

I've been super lonely at home because my mom's overseas, my dad's goes to work and my sister always stays out till super late :( So I've been busying myself with housework and all things digital :D When you're home alone, the computer is your new best friend! (especially when you don't have cable.)

Tomorrow will mark the end of dance pracs + lunch outings with the easties :( But hooray Christmas is coming!! Even though its only the start of December, all the (disappointing) Orchard Rd decorations and christmas carols playing in the malls have gotten me into the Christmas mood already :)

My Christmas Wishlist:

tallness (1.7!)

thinner hair

eyebag-less-ness

ballet flats

more shorts

threadless shirts!!

really nice sec 3 classmates/teachers