2014

So the end is nigh. The end of 2014 that is.

I see that everyone is doing a summary/recap of how their 2014 went. As for me? Far too much has happened in the space of a year that I'm not going to try and list out every single event.

However I will say that 2014 has been quite the roller coaster. I feel like I've learnt so much in just this one year. Sure it may not be the traditional things like studies seeing as I've been taking my post uni gap year. But the experiences of doing something else in life besides just studying and working really are quite valuable. If not for personal development at least they make for great conversation.

I'm not much of a non-fiction reader and this past year I haven't been reading as much as I used to but the books that I have picked up are geared more towards the factual side. For some reason I find it harder to get lost in fictional books as much as I used to. The psychological analysis for that would probably be that I am not so eager to get away from real life as much. Probably true, but I digress.

My main point was to recommend a book that I believe everyone should read. Especially if you are an introvert. It's called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking  No it's not one of those self help books that is meant to change your life. But I think it's a good read for everyone to understand people a little bit more. I am definitely an introvert by nature. Yet I've found in the past year that the first impression I give off has been that of an extrovert! The book talks about how many introverts in life will slowly learn to be what is known as a pseudo-extrovert. Someone who changes to a more extroverted nature because that is what society is more welcoming off. Definitely has happened to me. While I believe introverts should read to book just so you can feel less out of place in the world, it's the extroverts who would benefit more from it I think. For them to understand that when someone just wants to stay at home by themselves doing their own thing, it's not because they are getting old and boring but because they just need to recharge.

All that aside, one thing for sure is that I am definitely getting better at this life thing. 

Read More

into the jungle.

So it's been just about one month since I've started my internship at KinkyBlueFairy. And I've learnt/done so much more than I ever thought I would. I thought I'd be doing lots of small tasks but because I joined during their busiest period, it's been a bit hectic at times.

1. Got to see what it's like to set up a stall at Seek & Keep @ BSC.
2. Wrote a couple of blog posts. Let me tell you straight up that so much more work goes into a blog post than you can imagine. From making sure you've included all the necessary info, editing every single picture that appears as well as trying to make the post engaging.
3. Saw the BTS of a product photoshoot. Seriously, it takes up a whole freaking day.
4. Uploading stock info onto the e-commerce site.
5. And the most stressful thing of all being preparing for The Ship in Singapore. No jokes. Packing and labeling 10 boxes of stock, interviewing people to be on the sales team, and getting the 101 small items that you don't even know you need till you need it. Worse thing is I'm not even on The Ship because I'm still waiting on my visa so no passport!!! ='(

But it's really been a great month! Everyone on the team has been fun and nice and just generally giving off some great vibes. Even though there are times where we end up working till late, it doesn't ever feel like a drag and time passes so quickly. Just the day before I was working on a presentation and time just slipped away that when I checked the time it was already 9pm.

Read More

all about that bass.

Time to blog about my Bangkok and Siem Reap trip!

Honestly I wasn't really into going to Bangkok again because 1. I've already been and done all the touristy things and 2. Sam is probably not as into shopping as I am. And that's saying a lot because I am not a shopaholic. While I do enjoy a fair bit of window shopping, I don't actually buy anything unless I think it's super worth the price or on a massive discount.

However since Thailand is apparently a must do for S.E.A the agreement was that Sam would let me go shopping with minimal whining from him. Haha.

DAY 1

Got into Don Mueang Airport in the evening and was planning to take a cab to the airbnb I booked but the queue for the taxi was super long. So after one of the airport personnel told us it would be easier to take the shuttle to Mo Chit BTS that's what we did. The rain did not make things any easier as it meant traffic was even worse than usual, and that's saying something for Bangkok. Getting to the nearest station to the airbnb was pretty easy and the skytrain was quite empty when we boarded so we got to sit down. Alighting at Saphan Taksin BTS and a quick cab ride later(bnb was actually walking distance but it was late) we finally arrived at the apartment.

The apartment was really nice and for only £24 a night a pretty good deal!

Link to the apartment. 

It started pouring soon after we got settled in so we just went to the restaurant at the bottom of the next block of apartments for dinner. It was Indian for our first meal in Thailand but it was pretty good Indian I must say.

Next morning we headed into the city because Sam had an interview to attend. Because you know, nothing is better than having to attend an interview while on holiday. So while that was happening, I went off to do a bit of shopping! At Platinum mall of course. For the uninitiated, Platinum mall is a wholesale mall where many blogshops buy their stock from. You can see many girls with massive suitcases stocking up on all these cheap and wonderful goodies. The main problem I faced is that you usually have to buy 2 or 3 items from the same shop to get the wholesale price but since I was shopping alone it meant I didn't buy some things I liked because it was probably the only item I did like. But I did get some savings like when I bought these two midi skirts which were 490 baht each but buying two brought the price down to 370 baht each.

After that I met back up with Sam for lunch where we had some tasty Korean fried chicken. Still no Thai food yet although I did get my mango and sticky rice fix in the Platinum mall food court when I had a break from shopping. I then convinced him to go back into Platinum mall because he needed some new shirts and probably a whole new wardrobe but unfortunately my powers of persuasion only managed to get him to buy two shirts and two tshirts.

A pretty long cab ride back to the apartment due to surprise surprise bad traffic.

Dinner was at Tawandang German Brewery at Rama III road. You definitely need to take a cab there as it is quite out of the city. I used the myteksi(also called Grabtaxi out of Malaysia) app to book the cab so I didn't have any issues with the taxi not using the meter or getting us lost.

The main attraction being of course the beer they make in house. So finally beer that wasn't Tiger, Heineken or Carlsberg.

Their pale ale.

Really hoppy so my favourite of all. 

The dark ale.

Pretty good as well. 

Typical Thai food.

The food was not bad but also slightly on the pricier side for Bangkok. The restaurant also has live music the whole night which makes the atmosphere in the restaurant nice and lively. Most tables there seem to be locals having a night out as you can order 3L beer towers. The most amusing thing that I found was that in the girls toilet was a sink that had a sign about it saying "For vomiting only". None of that in the men's toilet though. 

DAY 2

Late start the next day as someone coughsamcough wanted to wake up naturally without an alarm so that meant only waking up at 10am. After getting coffee in this hipster art cafe just up the road we made our way to this restaurant closer to the BTS for some lunch.

It's called Queen of Curry at 49 Charoenkrung, Soi 50. While they clearly cater to a lot of tourists where they had an option of either European or Thai level of spiciness for all their curries, the food was good. We ordered a bowl of chicken Tom Yam and some duck curry with both being delicious.

Next it was off to the main tourist attraction of Bangkok. The Grand Palace.Took the riverboat from the Saphan Taksin pier. Got onto one of the local ones which meant a ticket up to the Grand Palace was only 15baht as opposed to the 150baht for the tourist boat. 

And of course while walking from the pier to the gates of the Grand Palace there were plenty of people telling you that you had to buy their shawls or long pants or otherwise you won't be allowed into the Grand Palace. While it is true that Thailand is quite strict on their no shoulders and no knees dress code, the Thai government actually provides rental of suitable clothing where you just have to put down a fully returnable deposit of 200baht. So we just ignored those touts although I did see a few tourists cave in and buy some clothes. 

Why do all the statues look so grumpy?

A rooster man. 

This is what Sam looks like when he's hungry. 

EAT ALL THE FOOD!!

That pink crop top is in most of my tourist pictures cause I just keep it in my bag and throw it on when there is a dress code. And the hat was an excellent buy from Platinum mall the day before. 

We spent about 3 hours there and although I have been there before, it was still a fun time as the compound really is quite massive so there's always more to look at. 

That night we went to checkout Asiatique which is the newly opened night market. They provide free boat rides from the Saphan Taksin pier which meant there was a massive queue in the evening. But it was nice to get a free night boat ride. Had dinner in this fusion place as I was craving pasta for some reason. After that I wanted to get a massage as all that walking during the day gave me sore feet. And well, it's Bangkok so cheap massages are aplenty. I got a one hour foot massage for 390baht I think while Sam had a few more beers in one of the bars. Day 2 done!

DAY 3

I had planned the Bangkok trip to cover the weekend so that I could go to Chatuchak market. Sam was a bit grumpy about waking up early to go but since I wanted to avoid the crowds we left the apartment at 9am. Which is actually not early enough as the crowds were already coming in when we got there. After half an hour of wandering around, Sam had a funny tummy so he went back to the apartment first while I wandered around a bit more. Didn't actually buy that much since I had already had my fill of shopping from Platinum mall. I did enjoy just looking at all the things they had for sale as you can pretty much buy anything and everything in the market. I also stopped by this stall for some duck noodles which was served with coagulated duck blood. Overall it was quite yummy and I did enjoy the creamy texture of the blood though I'm not sure whether it's something that I would seek out if it didn't already come with. Stall food is not something that many people want to try for fear of food poisoning but to me as long as it's piping hot or there are lots of locals eating there, it should a-okay to consume. 

The rain started getting heavier so I decided to head back to the apartment. We then went to the nearby mall to grab a snack before yet another massage! I just love massages. This time it was a full body massage and it was to be Sam's first time having a massage. And he liked it. Thai massages may not be everyone's cup of tea and it can be painful if not done properly but the place we went to was good and the masseuses managed to press all the soreness out of us. We had our massage at this place right next to Wat Yannawa. It was less of a massage parlour as they also provided traditional chinese medicine services such as cupping and it was filled with locals so I'd say it was a wellness centre. 

Dinner was at 25 Degrees at Pullman hotel. Supposedly one of the better burger joints in Bangkok, I am sad to say that it was remarkably average. 

That wraps up my Bangkok trip. This has turned into quite a wordy post haha.  

Read More

shu

Plans. Something to get you to where you wanna be.

I used to have plans. But they weren't for getting me to something, more like getting me away from something. I used to think about my plan in every spare moment, because, of course I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't fail. That my plan would succeed.

But what happens when the thing I wanted to get away from leaves my life because of another incident? Suddenly all the plans I made were of no use to me anymore. Not because it wasn't a good feasible plan, but because I knew it was a much longer timeline to happiness, to a life of my choice.

Now? I have no plans. I believe that trying to get away from something is much stronger motivation than aiming towards something. People will tell you to reach for the stars. And you may try, try quite hard in fact, but you won't try as hard if the ground around you was filled with rotting rubbish rather than the tiled floor it is now.

After all, the stars are pretty, but the tiled floor ain't so bad. 

Read More

top speed.

Sometime I feel like a really bad blogger because I barely blog anymore. I remember a time when I used to blog at least every other day. But now? One post a month. Oh well...

To continue on with my Raleigh experience.

After "Dive Island", it was back to basecamp for 36hours of rest and group reshuffling.

I had been hoping to be put into the water gravity feed team because that project seemed harder to come by than the community learning centre/kindergarden building project. But of course life never really gives you what you want and I ended up in the CLC/Kindergarden group.

HOWEVER, I really ended up enjoying myself on the project!

What we first arrived to. Quite a lot of work put in by the first phase but also a lot of work to be done if it was gonna be in operation in 5 weeks.

Where we would be staying.

This project was considered one of the "luxurious"one as it is it only project where you get to sleep on a bed. That's right! A real bed with sheets and pillows and blankets. So basically it was either 2/3 to a room which had double decker beds. Also electricity. 

One interesting experience was the first night. Most of us in the group(Alpha 1) had just come off the Adventure phase which meant we were still in "jungle" mode. And on the first night of dinner, we had taken the tables and chairs out from the living room and had our dinner out in the dark with our head torches. Nobody made any comment about this at all until halfway through the meal Hugh (one of the PMs) made a comment how this was a new experience for him. As he had been in the same project in the previous phase, we asked him how the previous group had their meals then. He simply replied that they had their meals in the living room where there was electricity and therefore light! The funny thing is none of us even thought of having our meals indoors as we were all so used to being outdoors all the time. One benefit of not using the light is that insects were less likely to fly into our food. 

The next day we were all invited to a wedding. The village we were in Kampung Togudon, is not that large and made up of mostly one family. Domissin (one of the brothers) would be leading our project as head carpenter and it was Zita (one of the sisters) who had pushed for the building of this centre. 

The wedding was a new experience as I had never attended a Dusun wedding before. However weddings don't really differ from culture to culture, they all are basically a large joyous affair with lots of food, dancing, singing and drinking. 

The bride and groom have to drink out of this. 

Not quite sure what's in it but the straw is made out of bamboo. 

Let me talk a little now about the process of building the CLC. Pretty much all of us in the group had little to no experience in the building/DIY experience. Now we were expected to pick up a hammer and nail all day, take measurements accurately and do a hell a lot of sawing. I would say it was a slightly steep learning curve for the first one week as we learned the proper techniques for hammering, measuring and sawing. Safe to say that the first week had a lot of bent nails that wouldn't go in and planks/boards that were cut too short or crooked. But vast improvement once we got the hang of it!

Can't tell you how happy I was when I hammered my first 3-inch nail in perfectly! Sounds like such a small thing but it was definitely an achievement for me who had never held a hammer before. 

Sunday was our rest days so we usually did some sort of activity. We went down to the local town to just hang around and do shopping. We also went to a nearby "swimming" area which is basically just a river. But we had missed out power showers. Haha. 

There was a sort of karaoke session going on at the swimming area. 

Our two beloved PMs Dickie and Hugh having a little sing-a-long. 

And that was us being dragged on stage as well.

Lots of fun and laughter!!

Phase 2 was also the time to film our music video. Every group had to film a music video in tune to the chosen theme song for the expedition. The song for our expedition was Let's Get Ready to Rumble by Ant & Dec. It was fun to record to as the lyrics are just ridiculous but also a bit strange as unless you were British, very unlikely you would actually know the song. Another funny story is that the song is mainly rap and we didn't get any lyrics to it! So we had to spend an hour or two listening intently trying to figure out exactly what was said and never being sure whether we were right. At the end of our phase we found out that we were actually given the lyrics but the PMs left it behind at basecamp. No harm done but it did make filming a bit more tedious. 

Some photos of us prepping for the video. We went for a gangster theme.

The girls.

L-R:Me, Char, Kate, Stef and Jenny.

The boys minus Jack who doesn't do dress up.

L-R: Archie, Q(although you can't see his face), Michiel and Will. 

Welcome to Kg. Togudon's tattoo parlour. 

Will's arm. 

Part of the lyrics were "Raw, a kill like sushi." So that's Archie being wrapped up as sushi.

Hugh and Dickie who were sporting enough to be roped in to our little dress up!

Now the reason the music video was of the utmost importance is because the winning theme would get a COOKED BREAKFAST. A full English breakfast!!! Now if you read my precious post you'd know that for 10 weeks all we'd have for breakfast is porridge so a cooked breakfast was quite a reward!

WE WONNNNNNNN!

The compilation of our winning clips!

Below is the music video played at the end of expedition party which is a compilation of every groups efforts which made for a funny video.

On our last night there we had a party with all the villagers. We cooked some food they cooked some food, we sang songs they sang songs, we danced together, we even got a go at their gongs! Much harder to keep the rhythm that you would think.

A look at what we accomplished over 21 days. 

Cladding all round.

The ceiling panels. 

Where we left it.

What proved to be a recurring problem is the bendy wood. Cause all the wood was sourced from the nearby forest, the quality was not consistent. So sometimes we had perfect pieces of wood that we nice and straight, and other times they were bent like a banana! It meant getting everything nailed in straight required a lot more patience and nails than normal. 

But overall a great phase with lots of fun but lots of learning too. 

Other things we did that I won't blog about in detail. English lessons for the village women and children (everyone was soooo nice!) the ladies brought us bananas and even gave us a cooking lesson. Going to a church service where everything was in Dusun (the church was an hours walk uphill). The bajillion card games we played that we even had a "Speed" tournament board.  

Was sad to see this phase end as it meant we were only one phase away from the end.

Read More

little talks.

After trekking around the Long Pa'Sia jungle for 10 days, it was not time to go back into semi-civilisation. I say semi-civilisation because Long Pa'Sia is still ~4 hours away from the nearest town in a 4X4. Which sometimes sounds really long especially considering it being a very bumpy ride most of the way, but also doesn't sound that long when I think about all the 13hour journeys back and forth from the UK I have made.

So there we were with chairs that have a back, beds that we don't have to set up and toilets that we didn't have to dig. Only 10 days away from all of this and already we appreciated it that much more. Part of the trek phase is being able to spend one night in a homestay which meant that for one night and half a day, we had some delicious food which included fresh vegetables! and bananas and donuts. All seemingly simple things but definitely tasty nonetheless.

Lucy, Me, Stef and Bobbie.

That was us spending some time up on this hill overlooking the village. 

Lots of nice green leech free grass that we chilled on. 

Our guide Noor!

Can you see how grubby my shorts and shoes are.

Also I think my hair looks pretty good considering I bathed in the river and had no conditioner for the past 2 weeks. Just saying. 

Homestay may have been the shortest part of my whole 10 week experience, but it was also one of my best memories. 

We then set off at 7?am the next morning cause we were bound for KK. As the bus was driving through KK to drop us at the hostel (people who do trek/dive instead of dive/trek get to spend one night in KK! =D) looking out the window just seemed so surreal cause there were just so much going on that my past time in the jungle all seemed like a dream. 

Anyways, the hostel we got to was okay. It had a bed, a fan and showers so no complaints there seeing as we all knew we could survive with far far far less. Happy day for we got our dive bag! Basically since we had to pack as little as possible for trek we got to put anything else we wanted for the diving section of our phase in another bag. Woohoo for non-jungle smelling clothes and underwear!

That night we went to the Phillipino market in the city centre. It's basically one big pasar malam that sells food on one end and clothes/souvenirs/trinkets on the other end. Had a nice time browsing around and feeling like a normal person, not a crazy person who decided to spend 10 weeks in rural Sabah. 

Next morning we went to out classroom session for diving. Part of the Adventure phase is getting a diving certificate from PADI. So we spent most of that day going over all the theoretical stuff. After that we set off for Mamutik Island a.k.a Dive Island as Raleigh calls it. It is an island just off KK and also where Shangri-La takes their guests to so yeah, it's a pretty nice island with a clean beach and clean water. However, besides the houses for the people who work on the island there are actually no lodgings so it meant we were back in our hammocks. This time under one large tarp that is permanently there for Raleigh. 

We then spent the next 4 days learning all the basics of diving. It was all quite scary at first because honestly breathing under water is just such a foreign feeling. Most of the time my mind was just going "Am I breathing enough? Am I breathing too slowly? Too quickly?", so yeah breathing suddenly became something that required my concentration. Though by the the time I got my cert(Yup I passed!) breathing underwater came more naturally. We got a boat dive as the last thing we had to do to get a cert which was a super great experience. Got to go quite far down and while from the top it all looks dark and deep and scary, once I was down there it was really peaceful watching all the little fishys go by and sometimes it did feel like flying. 

We also did some underwater clean up on the last day as a way of giving back. You wouldn't believe how much rubbish just ends up at the bottom of the sea! We even found a shoe. Haha. 

All the following pics are from the Raleigh blog/Lucy because I didn't bother with any pics. 

Look at us all tanned and smiley!

Super heavy tanks. 

Getting ready to go under. 

Breakfast on the beach every morning. 

And that concludes my Adventure phase. Dive island was a great 'holiday' and all but I was getting a tad bored so was quite looking forward to the next phase. Back to basecamp for a whole new group and project!

Read More

all that i can say.

Now about the first phase of my 10 week expedition!

A 10 week expedition is split into 3 phases each lasting 19 days each.

The 3 phases for this expedition would be
Adventure: 12 days of trekking in the jungle and 5 days diving.
Community: Building a Community Learning Centre in a village OR building a gravity water feed system as well as a sanitation unit(i.e toilet)
Environment: Spending time in Class 1 protected forests helping the rangers out.

The order of which phase you do first is basically unknown to everyone till the morning where your new groups are announced alongside which project you will be off to.

The Adventure phase was one of the most feared by most to be the first phase to be embarking on as 12 days trekking in the jungle sounds super duper intense. That is 12 days of trekking to a different camp each day with all your belongings on your back. Which also includes the group kit stuff and ALL your food. Okay well not all, 6 days worth at a time. Really can't imagine how heavy my bag would be with 12 days of rations in it, even 6 split evenly between everyone was heavy enough as it is. Also considering that the bag was like half my weight standing up with it was always a challenge.

Sorting the food out proved to be the toughest part as everyone had to consider how much weight it would all actually add up to. We basically had to decide right there and then how much and exactly what we would be having for all meals. As while we would all have liked to bring a nice comfortable amount the thought of carrying so much weight for a long trek each day meant we had to cur everything down to the bare minimum. Suffice to say that everyone in the group lost weight after our 12 days in the jungle.

Alpha 6!!

Setting off the first morning. With rucksacks packed to the max.

No day to day account but a typical day on trek in Long Pasia will run like this.

6am: Wake up and start packing everything. Collect water, make fire, boil water, have breakfast.
8am: Leave camp.
Trek trek trek trek trek trek trek. Usually for 4 hours. With a couple of breaks in between with everyone collapsing on the ground and sharing a packet of ice gems/banana chips.
12pm: Reach camp and start unpacking the radio, get water from the river(cause the chlorine pills take 30minutes), start a fire.
12.30pm: LUNCH. Everyone's starving so every last crumb is consumed.
Laze about. Maybe a shower if the weather is nice, and by shower I mean a dip in the nearest river.
6pm: Dinner prep which mostly just consists of boiling noodles and heating up the meat/vege.
7pm: Food time. Usually followed by a hot drink.
8pm: BED. For most people.
I usually stay up till 9ish writing in my journal or chatting with whoever is awake.

Rinse and repeat for 12 days. By the end everyone's spirits were dampened because well I guess 12 days of trekking with minimal food in the same set of clothes will get anyone down.

I would have liked to write a longer post on trek but honestly no matter how many words I type out it still will barely describe the experience.

So here instead are the top 5 things I learnt!

1. Everything gets wet in the jungle. One night I left a pair of dry socks out and by the next morning it was damp even though it didn't rain that night. So put everything away in a dry bag.

Welcome to the laundry area. A lot of us dried out stuff over the fire but take note that everything will smell of smoke and may have scorch marks. 

2. There are gonna be leeches on you no matter how hard you try to get rid of them. If they haven't started sucking just flick them away. Otherwise just 'massage' them till they curl up into a ball then flick them. Try not to burn or pour salt on them cause they may throw up into your wound which may then get infected. Wearing longs while trekking does help though. 

3. You will drink lots of tea/coffee/Milo especially when it rains. So try to always keep the fire going to boil water cause it's easier to keep the fire going than to start a new one. And also drinking chlorinated water on it's own is not exactly the more pleasant taste.

4. Get a walking stick. Even if you don't own a nice proper walking pole, you can ask the guides to find a nice sturdy stick for you. It really helps with the going up and down hills. And believe me when I say there are A LOT OF HILLS.

5. Duct tape is the solution to everything. Haha. Leaky tarp? Tape it. Broken cutlery? Tape it.

My conclusion?

Yes trek is hard. But if I (who does absolutely no exercising at all), can do it. Anyone can.

It's more about adapting to the jungle life than it is about being fit. 

Read More

moonlight.

Onto the first week then.

Now considering most of the projects would be deep in the rural areas of Sabah where there is absolutely no cell service much less internet connectivity how were we to keep in contact with FieldBase? It's important to maintain contact so that at all times our movements were to be accounted for and also in case of an emergency they would know where to find us.

The main form of communication would be our radios. This was no basic walky-talky kinda thing. It was a proper radio system which we had to learn to set up. Setting it up involved firstly putting up the dipole antenna which always proved to be the most difficult/annoying part as you had to get it up a certain height and aiming for a branch on a three was clearly not a skill that was required in our day to day lives. The rest of it was a breeze with just having to plug things in into the main unit. We also learnt radio speak which is well awkward as you are trying to use as few words as possible while sounding official. I did find it fun though with learning the phonetic alphabet and all.

Next form of communication would be using the satellite phones. Which we never actually did use at any point because the radio always worked. And when the radio didn't work, neither did the sat phone.

And of course with Raleigh being very careful about things. There would have to be an in case of emergency option. The PLB. A Personal Locater Beacon. Basically just a big red button to push that would then bring emergency services in. But only in case of dire emergencies. Like if everyone was dying. Not dead. Dying. Grim but true.

We also covered some basic first aid. Always important when the nearest hospital could be hours away. Although there would always be a medic with us during projects that were more remote. So really, no worries cause the medics are well prepared. Other important things we learned were stuff like how to set up our bashers(involving putting up the hammock, tarp and mosquito net), where/how to dig our long drop(toilet a.k.a hole in the ground) and the etiquette behind it to avoid accidentally walking into someone doing their business

So after all the theoretical learning, it was now time to put out knowledge to the test!

We had all been split into different groups and my group Delta 5 got to be one of the first to go for our practice trek alongside two other groups. Packing wasn't such a chore yet as we were only going for one night so there wasn't really much to take. So after dividing up the food and group kit such as cooking tools, radio(which in total weighed 8kg), shovel, jerry cans(for water), we were off! There was also the matter of the group tarp also known as the sausage which two people had to carry at all times. It was heavy beyond imagination and carrying it for just 10 minutes over the uneven terrain was a test.

My first basher. Please excuse my socks they needed drying out. 

The group leaving. 

It was quite a challenging experience. What with me not having gotten my jungle legs yet. There was a lot of slipping and sliding along the way as while we did follow a sort of path, it was still a venture into the jungle. And for those who know me know that I tend to trip and fall even on completely flat ground for no reason whatsoever. Considering that, I think it was a pretty good trek with nothing broken or sprained. Haha. I did end up with lots of bruises and scratches though. 

With that done and dusted, I had gotten my first taste of the jungle life and while it wasn't the easiest thing, it also wasn't the hardest. 

I think I must also mention the first day of team building exercises. Not for the exercises themselves but for the conditions that we were to do it in. Let's remember that the end of the year is monsoon season over in Borneo so we were having downpours pretty much everyday. So the first time we were out on the field doing some team building thing it started pouring down and of course our first instinct is to run inside for cover. However, we were ordered to march back out by our PMs(Project Manager) and continue because rain will and should not stop us. The idea is that even while we are trekking in the jungle, we aren't gonna stop and seek shelter when it starts raining so we were gonna have to get used to being completely soaked through. 

Overall the first week was quite a learning experience. But that would prove to be only the tip of the iceberg because we still had another 9 weeks to get through with many other difficulties which meant a lot more learning about the jungle, our fellow group members and ourselves. 

Read More

little lights.

Time to blog about my jungle experience!

If you didn't already know, I spent 10 weeks on a Raleigh expedition in Sabah last year. This was an experience unlike any other and as much I will try to describe it here in detail, only those who have been will really know what it's like to live the simple life.

Let's start at the beginning then.

Got on the plane early Sunday morning as we were told that we had to be there by 11am. And by 'we' I mean the HCVs(Host Country Venturers), basically the Malaysians. The internationals were only getting in a day later. This is mainly cause we get the training and briefing a day earlier so that we can learn at our own pace as the English may not be everyone's first language. We were taken to Field Base which is a house somewhere on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu where everything is coordinated from.

Met the rest of the HCVs there as while 5 of us had flown in from KL, there were another 5 who were from Sabah. Right before we had lunch, we learnt one of the most important things to remember while on expedition. Three bowling. What is this you ask? For the whole duration of the expedition, it would be drilled into us to always three bowl before and after a meal. Three plastic bowls would be set up with the first for soaping up your eating utensils, the second with clear water to rinse and the third with water and a capful of bleach. So that would be soap rinse bleach after a meal and bleach rinse before a meal. This was to be the preventive measure against D&V(Diarrhea&Vomiting) seeing as living in the jungle isn't exactly the most hygienic of places.

It was then onwards to the swimming test! As part of the expedition we were going to get our PADI certs(diving cert) which meant that we had to be able to swim 200metres and tread water for 4 minutes. Thankfully swimming is one of those things you never forget as the last time I went swimming was probably 3 years ago.

After that we were taken to Base camp. It was about 45minutes away from KK so not as 'ulu' as you might think it is. This would be where we would live for the first week learning all the essential things like how to use the radio, use a parang(machete for the non-Malaysians) and basically how to survive the jungle.

Home at base camp.

Static bashers are surprisingly not that bad to sleep in. 

*TIP* Never ever ever put anything on the ground. Hang everything off the end of the bashers, including shoes. Something we learnt the first night there as it started pouring down in the early AM and everything that we didn't get off the ground in time got soaked cause the place floods. 

Bamboo hut. Where we would eat all our meals and get daily briefings. 

Another view of base camp. 

Normally it serves tourists as there you can go ziplining and white water rafting there. 

One thing that seemed so insignificant at the time was toilets. The toilets you say? Over the course of the 10 week expedition, base camp would be the only place where we would get flushing toilets as pretty much everywhere else it was a hole in the ground that you could perhaps flush with a pail of water or it would literally just be a hole. It would also be the only place with showers! And not rivers or buckets of water. Oh the little things you don't realise are luxuries till you don't have it. You don't know the joy of being the first back at base camp after a phase and being able to take a nice shower and wash your clothes in water that didn't smell like jungle. 

That night we learned how to make dinner using trangias(portable spirit stoves). 

Useful to know how to use. 

However we never actually used it over the 10 weeks.

It is a bit of a slow method especially when you're trying to cook for 10+ people at a time. 

Our first encounter with Raleigh rations.

At first what went through my mine was how can I eat the same kind of food for 10 weeks!?

But then you tend to get really creative with what you can make and I had some pretty good meals that you would never think to make. 

On that note I shall tell you a little about the meal plan for 10weeks.

Breakfast: Porridge today. Porridge tomorrow. Porridge every morning for 10 weeks! And not the rice kind of porridge that I like but rather oats. It's not so bad once you learn what you can take it with. My preferences are peanut butter and chocolate spread(the snickers combination) or condensed milk or Milo. Or when we run out of peanut butter, chocolate spread, Milo(because there is a limited supply but high demand) then it's raisins and sugar which is still okay. Honestly it was a bit weird to eat something sweet for breakfast as the Asian in me is more used to things like roti canai, wanton mee, or basically savoury things. 

Lunch: Crackers, cheese, tuna and chicken luncheon meat. A cold lunch so to say cause it requires a lot less effort and time. Although it sounds quite boring to eat for 10 weeks, this simple combination was actually enjoyed by everyone right till the end. Some of them found that just mashing everything together made you feel like you had more to eat and that it tasted better.

Dinner: The one real meal of the day. A very carb heavy meal though as being on rations meant that we couldn't use as many tins of meat that we would like. So it was a lot of noodles, pasta and rice with a side helping of vegetable and meat.

Overall in terms of food it wasn't that bad. And if it ever did get boring, someone told us to remember that "Raleigh rations are fuel not food".

That's all for this post.
More about our one week of prep before we set off on our projects in the next post!

Read More

fixer upper.

Normally I would blog about my trip to Denmark(went with my mum) but really in terms of sightseeing we didn't really do that much. And also my hands were too cold to want to take any photos. We did go and see The Little Mermaid statue(because Hans Christian Anderson was from Copenhagen) which is quite some way out of town and not quite worth the effort since you can't get close to it because it's out in the water. Also went to see Tivoli gardens which is one of the oldest amusement parks around. It was really nice and pretty but it is still an amusement park where the main attraction are the rides and we all know I am no a fan of roller coasters and such so it was just a nice stroll round. We did do a day trip out to Elsinore Castle because the lit student in me insisted on it. For those who don't know, that's Hamlet's castle. Hamlet may be most famous from Shakespeare's play but he is based on a real individual and walking round the castle had me imagining all the scenes playing out.

That takes care of the sights. The difference with this trip and all my other Euro trips is the food. Got to eat in some really good places this time round because I wasn't on a student budget. Mainly I got to experience my first ever Michelin starred restaurant, in fact it was just awarded it's second star just before we ate there.

Geranium
Per Henrik Lings Alle 4
Kobenhavn, Denmark

It's actually located in an office building which is right next to a football pitch which is slightly strange. The chef Rasmus Kofoed has won bronze, silver and gold medals at the Bocuse d'Or which is considered one of the important culinary competitions.

On to the menu!

Branches of sea salted cheese.

The black stuff on it was ash from some vegetable.

Carrot and sea buckthorn.

It was like a candied carrot shell. 

Jerusalem artichoke and walnut.

Wild pea sprouts and gooseberries.

This was really nice and fresh. 

Dried flowers and dried apple.

By far the strangest thing I ate that day. Honestly it felt like I was eating potpourri. 

Cep soup and pickled egg yolk.

A nice shot of mushroom-y soup.

Jellied ham and tomato water.

Quite nice and light but full of ham flavour at the same time.

Razor clams.

Really liked this as the 'shell' was wafer like. 

Mackerel in burned juniper, frozen horseradish and pickled cucumber.

Sashimi Danish style. 

Bread with emmer and spelt.

Sourdough bread is my fav so having these fresh out of the oven bite sized ones were really good.

Onions, chamomile and melted hay cheese.

Salted beef, milky cheese and juice from fermented carrots.

Enjoyed the salted beef but the milky cheese and fermented carrots not so much.

Charred potatoes, smoked lard and unripe berries.

My favourite of the meal because how can potatoes cooked in pork lard be anything but delicious. 

Also despite it looking burnt on the outside, the insides were nice and fluffy.

Tea from vegetables, beech leaves and pine.

Had this while getting to go inside the kitchen and watch the chefs at work. 

Well mainly just the plating side of the kitchen but you could see just how much time and effort were being put in to plating each dish so delicately. 

Flora danica rhubarb and crystallised thyme.

Green egg.

Only the eggs were edible and were actually made out of chocolate.

No photos of the accompanying juices but the ones we had were

Algae, cucumber and apple.
Bio plum.
Elderberries.
Blackcurrent.
Rhubarb and roses.

Overall you could see a lot of thought and effort had been put into the preparation of each dish and although I felt like I was eating a garden at some points it quite an experience. I can see why they were awarded two Michelin stars. I think there was also only like 10 tables in the whole restaurant so the tables were quite spread out which I liked because some times restaurants tables can be too close to each other that you can just hear everyone's conversation. But due to that fact and also the fact that there is almost no turnover as the tasting menu takes 2-3 hours, I can see why it costs more. But worth every penny I think.

So for my first Michelin star experience I'd say it has set the bar high.

Read More