19th December: My Twin and I

19th December is a special day for me and my sister, Daisy.

We are born around 3pm in the afternoon in 1977, 15 minutes from each other. Two of us are twins, but our characters, interests, likes and dislikes are poles apart. Phew! Lucky I came to the world first, coz I can't imagine having such a girlish name that of a flower- Daisy.

I like olive green, blue, strips and avoid floral prints or laces of any sorts, and pink - yucks! Daisy loves Hello Kitty, pink, white and red, and her cupboard is filled with very "sweet" tops, floral-printed tops and dresses, things that you would never ever find in my possession.

I love bee hoon of any sort, given a choice between bee hoon or mee, I would choose bee hoon, no doubt. Daisy dislikes bee hoon, she prefers kuay teow or yellow mee over my favourite bee hoon.

I'm brown as the brownie and stands at 1.68m. She's fair as "tau-huay" and is half a head shorter than me, at 1.6m. Since young, we have maintained that height and colour difference.

I enjoy outdoor sports, whitewater rafting, camping and backpack trekking. Pulau Ubin and East Coast are my favourite haunts. Daisy hates going under the sun, she prefers shopping at Suntec City or just staying at home.

My ideal holiday destinations are exotic countries such as Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet and places that are lesser trodded by tourists. Daisy's definition of a holiday is one of a luxurious treat, with good hotels, fine dining and shopping, so places like Hong Kong, Australia and Taiwan are her obvious choices.

Backpack travelling is what I love most as it allows me to immerse myself in the cultures of the people in the foreign land, travel and see the sights at my own pace. I enjoy the uncertainities and the occasional surprises and discoveries along the way. Daisy once said that she would never ever go backback travelling, as she prefers to have her itnerary planned and the confirmed schedule at her fingertips.

I once did an experiment with my twin. Given $3000, would you use the money to go for a holiday or buy a diamond ring or necklace?

Sister chose the diamond necklace without hesitation. Why? Her rationale: Memories will fade, but if you buy the diamond ring, you'll get it keep it forever. As for me, I would choose the holiday trip over the diamond ring anytime. Coz I don't like diamonds, think it's a waste of money and I love travelling. Even if memories fade eventually, at least the experiences are eternal. More so, then any stones or diamonds can offer.

It's amazing sometimes how two persons who are born to the same family, spent six years of education in the same primary school, eat, drink and breathe the same kind of air can be so distinctly different.

Daisy's newborn, Baby Shermaine is now almost 8 months old. Sis will be spending her birthday this year, with her husband, Peter and her beloved baby Shermaine.Here's a look at my twin sister's blog and baby Shermaine, http://www.our-humble-life.blogspot.com/our-humble-life.blogspot.com/

As for me, I've just returned from a weekend trip to Jakarta with Arlina and Weichean. It was a short holiday, but nonetheless, meaningful and enjoyable. We did the usual girlie stuff, going for massages, spa treatment, tried the infamous Cermara gado-gado, ate at roadside stalls and restaurants.

Arlina also brought me to the slum area near the railway tracks to see a contrasting but real sight of Jakarta, where many families live in poor living conditions, in small makeshift shacks along the tracks. These people are poor, but nonetheless, happy and friendly. One Indonesian "ah-peh" warned us not to go to a certain area, for fear of pickpockets.

Sometimes we lament about our lives and how it can be better. But when one goes beyond the comfort zones of Singapore and witness the harsh realities of life and see how people survive in such dire circumstances, it makes you rethink your life again.

My birthday resolutions this year- To travel and see the world, to document my travel adventures and involve myself in more charity projects such as the Club Rainbow's Camp Sunshine project I've participated last year.

PART SEVENTEEN: True Confessions of The Solo Traveller

Confession One
I slept with a 23-year-old Canadian boy, Justine, two days after I've known him. With Justine, in the same room at Mae Hong Son, coz it was 200 bahts per room and there are two beds inside. We had a great time chatting with two German gals who were teaching English in a nearby village school who were staying in the same guest house. I was greatly entertained by Justine's numerous "no thanks" and a Thai lady's persistent attempt to convince Justine to go to her house to spend the lonely night.

Confession Two
I followed three strangers on their motorbikes less than 20 minutes after we chatted on my first day in Pai and downed three shots of Thai herbal whisky, something I normally wouldn't even lay my hands on back home.

Confession Three
I drove the scooter without a licence. I had no clues how to ride a scooter. I befriended a 31-year-old Thai man while eating at the roadside stall and made him my "teacher". In Pai, they don't even ask you for your motorbike licence. All you need is 100-120 baht per day, and you'll get the motorbike for the entire day. You can do whatever you want and visit some of the nearby villages, hotspring or just cruise around the little town.

Confession Four
I drooled over my Thai rafting guide, secretly. With a neatly tied pony tail, tanned and atheletic hot bod, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the famous heart-throbber, Takashi Sorimachi, who acted in GTO and The Beach Boys, at least to me. I'm sure he will sell like hotcakes and will swoon many girls over if he's born in a different land, I thought to myself.

Confession Five
Muddleheadedness is a trait of mine that many close friends of mine would know. I left my favourite Nike trackpants in the Lahu village in the Northeastern part of Thailand after the two-day-one-nighttrek in Chiangmai. For one who had left my small haversack at the airport in Rome, after carrying my huge haversack and realising the "boo-boo" only 150 metres before I left the airport, and who had dropped my passport, without even knowing it, the loss of my trackpants during this two week break was considered a huge achievement. Hopefully, the tribal villagers would be able to put my favourite trackpants into good use.

Confession Six
I receive a marriage offer and an boyfriend offer, one from Mr Potato, a 60-year-old village man,and when told that I am single, he said, "how about you be my wife?" We had a good laugh and I confessed in an almost Thai-style fashion, "I like Made-in-Singapore, not Made-in-Thailand.

Nonetheless, I threw myself willingly into this arms, literally, as the kind Potato gave each of us a good Thai massage and literally tucked us into bed, under the comfort of the mosquito nets. The other marriage proposal was from an old Romanian fella, who asked "Hey lady, where are you going?" while I was walking along the street. "Going down the street, I replied. Are you looking for friends, a lover, or a boyfriend?" I said, "No, thank you, but minutes later, I was sitting around with them, chatting about the atrocities of war, the Thai people's culture and everything under the sky.

Confession Seven
I was offered to smoke marijuana by a South American traveller, who had been staying in Thailand for several years. I must confess that I was tempted. Drugs is a taboo in Singapore and I have no clues where to find marijuana in Singapore. But I decided not. I thankfully declined this one in a life-time chance for the heavenly puff.

PART SIXTEEN: Dos & Don'ts

1) Follow your heart. Don't feel obliged to visit the must-see temples, or follow the guide book to go the must-go places unless you really want to. You're on holiday and so long as you are enjoying your holiday, it doesn't matter what you do.

2) Don't forget your flashlight. One night in Pai, a little hippie town, 3 hours drive from ChiangMai, we experienced 3 blackouts within the same night. The torchlight would have come in handy, but incidents can sometimes be nice, because I met the wonderful owner, Amido, the best pizza-maker in Thailand, as quoted in the Lonely Planet, when both of us were standing outside the provision shop. We ended up having a very nice conversation, about his life experiences, his deceased wife and his daughter whom he has never seen for the last 14 years.

3) Don't expect punctuality, except when you are travelling by the railway train.
My guide told me to wait at 8.30am at Mae Aw, the Chinese village, as he would be bringing tourists to the Chinese village and would be able to send me to the bus station at Mae Hong Son. I waited till 10.30am but still see no sight of my driver.

4) Do switch your "brain" to a different time zone, Thailand is one hour
before Singapore time.

5) Don’t use this phrase easily, “Bar Bar Bor Bor”, though it sounds really nice. It means Crazy Man. Unless you are absolutely sure that the person is out of his mind, refrain from using this phrase.

PART FIFTEEN: My Last Day in Pai- Zero Stop

I booked my bus-ticket at 550 bahts, from Pai to Bangkok at the Duang GuestHouse just about a 5-minute walk from the bus station. The bus was scheduled to depart at 2pm. In the morning, I went to visit Amido at his restaurant for the last time.

I had wanted to eat his pizza but he told me that it was not possible, because he usually only heat the oven at 6.30pm in the evening. He suggested me having beef lasagna instead. I had the refreshing lemon grass tea as well for the last time.

Amido and I had become good pals just in the last couple of days. He did not allow me to pay for my breakfast despite my insistent requests. We took photographs together with his scrambler bike and I promised that I will send the photographs to him when I return to Singapore. Amido offered me a ride on his scrambler, even though the hotel is only a 5-minute walk away. I took up his kind offer, and went for a brisk ride on his "grasshopper-green" scrambler bike.

I went back to my villa, packed my bagpack and headed to the main street. I went for my final massage in a run-down Thai salon. The Thai lady was very nice and was busy spraying repellent for me to prevent me from getting bitten by the hungry mosquitoes. Language was a big problem. The Thai auntie couldn't speak English much, but she was very kind, conscientiously spraying her home-made insect repellent from a make-shift bottle onto my feet, muttering, "Mochito, mochito. Ooooh.....mochito...".


I had wanted to do the bare-backed elephant riding and river crossing but couldn't manage to do so as I did not have a partner and would need to pay double the price, (600 bahts) instead of 300 bahts.That was equivalent to 24 Singapore dollars for the 2-hour ride with the elephant.I had a little mental debate with myself, and decided that I would the elephant riding out this time.

The combination of friendly locals, relaxing pace of life, meandering river, lush-jungles, great restaurants and cool nightspots, make Pai a magical gem in Northern Thailand, and my favourite place in this trip.

Bye Bye PAI. (read as Bye) And as for riding on the elephant bare-backed and
crossing the river, I'll do it the next time.

I can't wait to get back to Singapore to whip up an authetic Thai papaya salad
for my family and friends.

PART FOURTEEN: My First Attempt on the MotorBike in Pai- Scootering in Pai,12 October 2006, Thursday

After spending several hours in the comfy Pai villa hut, I decided to take a breather and grab a quick bite before returning to the room to continue on my travelogue.

When I was enjoying my fried rice at a roadside stall underneath the tree, a young man, Pong came up to me and started talking in Thai. "Chan Mai Chai Kong Thai (I'm not Thai in Thai language)", I replied swiftly, whipping out the phrase that I've mastered over the last few days. I told him I was not Thai and we chatted. He asked if I had visited the hot spring which was only 6 kilometres away from Pai. I told him that I didn’t know how to ride the scooter. He suggested that I could rent the motorcycle from his friend’s shop and he could bring me to the nearby waterfall, hotspring and the Chinese village and teach me how to ride the scooter.

I said yes to Pong’s suggestion. Not because I really wanted to see the waterfall, or the Chinese village, but I wanted him to teach me how to ride the motorbike. I have been eyeing the scooters for the past few days. Pai is probably the only place in Asia where you can rent a motorbike or scooter without a licence. Knowing myself, I would most likely crash into some flowerpots or knock some poor dogs down if I handle a scooter on my own. He rode the first part of the journey, and when the road was smoother, I said, “Okie, now we change. I want to learn. You teach me.” We switched positions and I took over the bike. Pong was holding on to the brake most of the time, but kept giving words of encouragement, “You learn fast, you very good.”

Poo brought me to the nearby waterfall and we stopped at a local pub owned by his fren, Boo, a cool Thai lady, who married a Frenchman. Boo was playing pool with a few of her customers from Italy. One of the Italians recognized me and said that we have met at Amido’s Pizza Garden the night before.

I bought Pong a bottle of coke and he had a pool match with Boo. Boo invited me to go to another part of her little pub which offered a spectacular view of the mountains. I was happily using my camera to capture these beautiful moments, when I felt a tug at my pants. I looked down to realize that it was a kitten. I have a phobia for cats and the little kitchen freaked me out. I took a step back and it thought that I was playing with it and gave chase. I ran further. I turned my head to check on the furry one.

I kept a safe distance of about two metres from the kitten. The kitten stood still. Some people say that animals can sense emotions of human beings. I decided to engage in a short yet intense staring session with the kitten, to exert my authority over the little creature. My attempt failed miserably, the kitten sprang towards me. I think it sensed my fear more so and I had to forsake my beautiful scenery.

It soon started pouring and we had to seek shelter before we go back to Pai. Pong and I made a pact to meet at 7pm for dinner outside Pai de Villa, my guesthouse. After 10 minutes of waiting, I decided to walk to the main street on my own. He was having his dinner and didn’t realized that it was 7pm. I told him that it was alright and I would walk around on my own instead.

Soon after, I bumped into Amido, the Pizza Man and Terry, sitting at the same place we met the last time along the main street. Terry is from England and teaches English in Bangkok. We had a nice conversation about the atrocities of war, discrimination and Thailand for about an hour, before I made my exit to go back to the room to continue with my travelogue while the rest of the folks made their way to Be-Bop, the popular live-music pub in Pai.

PART THIRTEEN: Pubbing in Pai- The Buffalo Exchange & Quirky Shops in Pai

For Singaporeans who are on a shoe-string budget but enjoy pubbing, Pai is a
great place to go. No cover charge, for ladies night. Everyone can just come
into the pub, and you only have to pay for your drink, the cheapest of all, the
Singha beer, which costs 50 bahts. I went to The Buffalo Exchange, an intimate
cool pub. No fancy decorations, or super stereo surround-sound systems. It was
Open Mike session in the evening. In this cozy pub, musicians or aspiring singers flaunt their vocals and guitar skills to a hippie audience who are willing to give them a shot at fame, or simply a listening ear.

Quirky Shops in Pai
Check out MU and Saibadee Gallery along the main street of Pai. These two quirky
shops which sells an electic selection of T-shirts, jewelleries, postcards and
artworks by two young talented Thai designers. I went window-shopping at MU and Saibadee Gallery numerous times and got some really cute keychains and postcards for my dearie friends and colleagues.