Six Month Anniversary - Before we got together

Only for One person to see

Going over to the states

Well people,

Somehow.. just somehow.. im going over to america.. managed to pass my step1 and now running over to thomas jefferson from IMU. :/

a little scary though.. but excited too lol

Cameron Highlands

Well, things became interesting last week, decided to take a trip up to Cameron with friends. Usually I've only went up with my family during holidays. I wasnt very sure what we were going to do up there, but it was with fun friends who were a little more adventerous, so off we went.

The first day we reached around 4 in the evening, so with the little time we have left, we did what people would naturally do, go to Old Ye Smokehouse! It's an amazing place with beautiful flowers. With the cooling air, its really quite nice drinking tea and having their scones. You could stay there too, but i think its pretty pricey. :/ The tea and scones were on the higher end too, but for the experience it's pretty ok. :D

The second day, since we've already drank tea, we decided to skip on Sg Palas tea, and went to the factory, but it was closed.. we did have a look see, they didnt lock the door. haha and then walked around the place, taking just a short walk back to the carpark through the edge of the tea plantation. It's really serene, but it was the holidays so there was a number of people there.

We decided that we were going for a hike, so we drove up to Mt Brinchang, thinking perhaps when we reached an area where we could not drive, we would walk it then. Halfway up, we saw this Mossy Forest and thought that it was supposed to be the walk up to the peak. It was built beautifully, with no rubbish bins though, and the forest has a perfectly and nicely built walkway. Its really easy to walk, (people who i've met here ranges from kids to old aunties), and so it didnt take us long to finish walking this place. I didnt upload it, but there were some really nice scenery during the walk. 

This is the only sign we saw that signifies the peak of Mt Brinchang. The peak is unremarkable, with a communication centre and a lot of radio towers there. 

These two pictures were taking from an observation tower at the peak right outside the communication centre. The view is awesome here! We shouted our hearts out when people left. haha. The tower was small but you could really see far from the top of the tower.

The hotel we stayed in. Rosa Passadena. I think they have a few places up in cameron? Owned by the same company under different names. A lot rosa's up there. The staff were really friendly and helpful, always with a smile. The rooms were ok, quite large but it wasnt really a budget place. As with the rest of the accomodations in cameron, no aircon but you wont need it up cameron. There is a tv in our room, and spent the first night watching a movie, drinking and talking in the room. 

Green-Eyed Monster

Jealousy -  is an emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, particularly in reference to a human connection. 

There's no reason to be jealous, why be jealous when you know that there's nothing to be jealous of? There was no sign, no telling, no reason to ignite this feeling of sourness and bitterness. Yet, you're feeling unsure, you dont know what the other thinks truly. Does it all mean nothing? Is the treatment the same for everyone? How would you know?

You could tell yourself sometimes you just cant do anything but place yourself out there. Forget all these unwanted feelings and go for it, cause thats the whole point. But because of these feelings, you couldnt.

You just want to forget everything and stop for a moment.. Tell yourself, no. dont. and then move on. Perhaps thats best. Perhaps thats the only way this green-eyed monster will leave.

Laos Humanitarian Expedition 2012 (IMU)

Hey! It's been a really loooooong time since i posted anything here.. Went for a trip to Laos for community work and then been busy with community medicine project and research work back in uni.

Well a little about my Laos trip! We called it the Laos Humanitarian Expedition, which is way too cool a name for what we did exactly.. :P We went over and helped paint the school children's library, bought materials for the village we were in (Muang Kham village) to build a community toilet and then i think they also used some of the funds we brought to rent a tractor and flatten the roads, trust me.. the roads there.. OMGosh. They really needed flattening.

Here we were climbing down the jetty with some medicine we brought for the village.

We had to take a boat to cross the river to the village, and this is after we took a 10 hour bus ride. @.@

First day in the village, we walked to their paddy fields and tried planting paddy. Really have to appreciate rice after this..

Ordered insects to eat when we were at the town, it was surprisingly tasty! and most of us ate it. Didnt expected so many of us to be so brave. haha

During our stay in the town, we ran around town with these half motorcycles, half vans? They call them tuktuk (its similar to rides in Cambodia and the countries in that region)

The 2nd home that opened up for us. This is the house i stayed in during the time we spent in Muang Kham 

Me and Ter! One of the boys who were really helpful!

Overall it was a really great trip, we went over and the villagers were very welcoming. Feeding us rice like crazy, fearing we would actually be able to lose weight there.. I really enjoyed playing with the kids, we didnt understand each other because I couldnt speak Lao, but we still managed to get along, tickling each other and them trying to climb on me. 

During our farewell, I'm not a crying type of person, but watching them cry when we leave, it really touched me. Even with such a short stay, they had grown attached to us and us to them. 

We might have or have not changed much for them but just by going there and showing that there are people who helps each other, I think thats the most important thing? Sometimes when we read about all the terrible things in this world, we need to know there are people who would care.

What would you do when you're faced with death?

We know the five stages of grief; something most people would go through when diagnosed with death.

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

No one wants to die but death is imminent, except for two person in the bible, Enoch and Elijah ( both names starting with E... hmmm ) sometimes we would have to think, what do we want in life? Is there a purpose? Living without a purpose is torture, isnt it? I think so, it might be relaxing but sooner or later, you would find it boring, you would wake and want something more, something different and if you had no purpose, you would have no idea what action to take.

When someone is faced with death or cancer, as everyone is fearful of now, would we want to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy and all that? Even now as a medical student, I've been reading of the futility of all these treatments. I'm not saying "OMG We should all despair! Cancer! Curses!" but look at our lives. Would living out whatever remaining time left be enough? Are you happy when you look back at your life? Has it been fruitful? But perhaps there is something more you want out of life? Is there? A goal u wan to achieve? A wedding of your children you want to be there for? The birth of your grandchild? Then go ahead! Fight on! There is always hope, without hope humanity would not survive.

I guess what i'm trying to say here in a nutshell is "Think about death and life, and figure out your path onwards based on your goals and whether you have achieved them or not."

Article on doctors dying and how they think...

Waking up one morning.

I was gonna go out for dim sum breakfast with two friends today, one a friend who i rarely talk to. Another supposedly my best friend.

The morning itself, when i woke up and told them i might be late, my "best friend" send me those messages. This was after one whole week of him finding out the other friend changed number and talking with her the night before.

After he came back, i realized he messaged us all these while because he was bored overseas, and not because we were actually close. It was disappointing. I've been trying not to post anything else depressing but today.. this just sucks.

I did eventually go out and smile at him but its not longer the same la.