A disgrace

Hello virtual world. It has been a while, eh?

My effort to keep the blog alive through posting snippets of my life has been proven to be unsuccessful. Let’s be honest, it was a halfhearted thing from the start anyway…

So, I reverted all of them back to draft to save myself from some form of disgrace.

I wish I’d write more. Really, I do. But I have so many excuses not to write or to finish writing. I have gazillion drafts everywhere: in my phone, in Word, in the draft box. The blogger (CHEH) in me, had ideas popping out here and there, whenever the urge to write came up. I just never found the time to sit and type a proper post because I AM PLAIN LAZY.

When lah all of my travel posts would be published? I ask myself the same thing.

Cottage Getaway

Over my last fall break, my friends and I rented a cottage in Gatineau, Quebec through AirBnB for fun.

We spent two days and two nights there. We made and had fancy meals, and played all sorts of puzzles and games till early morning...while also managing to study in between. #nerds

It never occurred to me that having a house in the middle of nowhere would be somewhat useful. Then, came this house and I fell in love with the idea. Just look at it, it's beautiful!

A beach house was the dream before but now, I want a house on top of some hill, overlooking the view from up high. Of course, the idea was wonderful for countries like Canada and the States because the forest is pretty (to me) and there’s no spooky and mystic stories (which Malaysia is rich with) and all that thingamajig.

We even saw a wild deer at one point. Excuse my low quality picture. Trust me, it's a real deer, not a painting...

Oh, just how lovely would it be to own a place like this, which is just a drive away, for a short getaway?

 *dreams away*

What I've Been Reading 006

1. Infinite Sky, C.J. Flood

When you want things to change, you have to do something different.

Some people can’t fit the mould that’s made for them…They get squashed in. And it’s hard for them to leave, but it’s harder for them to stay. They have to find other ways to be.

I can definitely say that the book was not exactly my cup of tea. I am not much of a deep-thinker when it comes to reading books. I usually take things at their face value (I really should work on this). Therefore, the book was a tad too heavy for me because it discussed discrimination and prejudice. How do I move on from light reads?!

2. Love Letters to the Dead, Ava Dellaira

I loved the feeling of being alone together in the car, like we could go anywhere we wanted. Just us.

I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won’t be as good as everyone imagines we could be.

It might have been more meaningful and interesting if I knew half of the people she was writing to (I don’t exactly know celebrities and their significant life stories well okay). I also might not have been able to comprehend the reason for May’s actions…

3. Lullabies, Lang Leav

If a boy ever says, you remind me of someone -- don't fall in love with him. You will never be anything more than second best. - Forewarned

I read poetry books like this because of the hype it has on the internet. I think I like Love & Misadventure more. The collections of poems in this book are very…plain? Disclaimer: the quote above was not something I really believed in.

4. All the Bright Places, Jennifer Niven

“Just be careful” implies that there’s an end to it all, maybe in an hour, maybe in three years, but an end just the same.

I love Finch for so many reasons and thus I was disappointed with the book. He’s definitely weird but he seemed like a fun person to hang out with. When I finished reading this book, I noticed the repeating theme of my recent book reads: secrets and suicides. So dark, I know.

5. I’ll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson

Your eyes are so ethereal, your whole face is. I stared at pictures of you for hours last night. You give me chills. And you give me global warming!

And some thoughts once thought are very hard to unthink.

This was one of my favourite reads. It was a tad odd at first because I have never read a book from the perspective of a homosexual person before. So, that was new. Other than that, I just loved the mini quirky things from the grandma’s bible (I’m pretty sure it’s not the real biblical excerpts, just a guide books of sorts). I wished the graphics were real though and not just mere descriptions.

Summer Trip Travelog: Tour Package

The most crucial part of traveling is the planning.

There are so many things to take into account: accommodation, transportation, attractions to visit, food, peoples’ preferences and budget. The amount of time you have to invest for research alone is endless when you have no clue where to start.

I was busy with school when the idea came up and therefore, I did not have much time to spend on searching for the best deals available on the net. Because my roommate was very excited about it, she did most of the hard work. She ended up choosing a tour package with Kelana Convoy that covered a lot of places in such a short amount of time AND most importantly, within our budget.

The best thing? We did not have to worry about finding our own accommodation, transportation and meals. All the bare minimum of those were included in the package. I mentioned bare minimum because the basics were: tent accommodations, transportation from each country to another (which was the tour bus) and most breakfast and dinners.

Extra money would be needed to cover cabin accommodations, sleeping bags, attractions’ entrance fees, local public transportation, meals that weren’t provided (lunch mostly), hot shower (yes, you have to pay for hot water at some places), flight arrangements and also pocket money. Other than those, you’re paying £485 which was around RM 2637 ONLY per person to cover 5 European countries within 9 days. Pretty much a steal, eh?

The next few summer trip posts will cover most of the places I visited with Kelana Convoy and also, my overall experiences. Check ‘em out if you’re interested in budget traveling (but I am not going to be reviewing the tour package per se because that’s not my focus).

Photo credit: Sylwia

Summer Trip Travelog: Thoughts on Northern Ireland

Our main goal in Northern Ireland was to visit as many attractions as possible, hence the tour and the limited time available for exploring Belfast city itself.

Based on our bus rides (and adventures while getting lost) around the city, I found the city to be really beautiful and unique: there are mixtures of modern and old building here and there. (I am very tempted to add some comments about the architectural values of them but I am not going to humiliate myself because, I know none.)

It was such a waste that we did not allocate more time to wander around. We could’ve gone to visit the place where Titanic was built‼ I did not even know that such thing existed there. I only found out about it when we were buying fridge magnet as souvenirs...I really lack general knowledge, don’t I?

Anyways, in that short amount of time (before and after the Giant Causeway tour), we did manage to experience a bit of the ‘local culture’. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that the locals were really nice to tourists like us. Every single time we seemed to be a bit lost, someone would always offer to show us the way to get to our destination without even having to ask for help!

Once, we were somewhere in the city, trying to find our way back to the bus stop. One lady saw us holding maps upside down and all and genuinely asked if she could help, which we gladly accepted. People like them really made the process of getting around so much easier, and less scary!

I would definitely recommend to visit Northern Ireland for those who get excited seeing grasses, trees and rocks. The landscape views were breath-taking and I would say they’re one of my favourites that I’ve seen so far. If not, just come and visit it to say hi to the extremely nice locals! :D