Farewell to my Sweet Lil Korean Buddy

070724: Times fly. Birds fly. Even people fly! I have to get used to yet another Buddy who is flying on to the next phase of life, in another place, reachable, only by birds, er.. or by plane. Thank goodness, it’s still reachable. In fact, it’s just across the South China Sea, separated by a 5-hour flight. But the fact that each has different phase to work on makes it distant by miles, limited by thoughts.

I somehow got a hand on assisting her to get through the interview. That day itself was somehow memorable not only in terms of what I thought was a well-performed interview, but also a day of achievements – we managed to go the distance to finally get a good Father’s Day gift, and managed to climb 39 floors to taste glory in the forms of a cup of coffee. Irony as it seems, I am like sending my best buddy away to work in another planet. But I always think the most caring thought would stay with someone, be it here or there. This thought would at least pull the distance a little.

“Buddies like you is hard to find, hard to lose, and
impossible to forget”

Nope, surprisingly, the quote is not from me. Haha, I always tease her about her jumbled language and expression. But this quote in the card tonight really caught my mind, it’s never this simple expressing something so compound. Suddenly everything comes into one piece, and it feels like we’ve been in a short Korean series. You know how the story-line always go from some tough drama to a beautiful life and yet, in the end, farewell looms. Haha, I can’t stop smiling each time reflecting on this.

It’s not so much of a sad farewell actually… probably because I know she’ll be safe in good hands. And more so too because I know I’ll still be hovering around like a Guardian Angel, even from far, like what she has experienced in this couple of years. And I’m glad she acknowledged this in the card too.

I’d love her to know that the ‘slaps’ are still available when both need a quick wake-up, especially from some slumps that we both acknowledge. It’s definitely better to be slapped by a Buddy than a stranger! What more a Korean-looking one! Hahaha….
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Happiness always, my dear Budz! Here’s something I don’t always do… for U, special lah!... for all the kimchi good times... kamsahamnida... saranghaeyOoO
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Painting Beautiful Bali with My Purple Friends

070622: It’s more than one month ago that I went on this trip to Bali. In between, time was like vacuumed! I hardly had enough time to even sleep. It was a transition to my new job that suffocated my life a little bit. But it was hell one of a ‘happening’ and exciting period. Every function, event, be it farewell, or welcoming party, birthday, catch-up outing seem to zip past - fast and furious.
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Wanted to blog so many memorable moments for the past month, but couldn’t find any time to do so, until now. Like I commented earlier, had time to live it, but no time to reflect and appreciate.

Back to this beautiful trip. It was my last trip with my fellow purple friends, with the purple company. Though it’s nowhere like a trip to Hawaii or Maldives, I still enjoy every bit of the time spent with this beautiful bunch, anywhere on earth, anytime!

Here goes the photos in chronological order….

First up you may be surprised by this Japanese fair. In Bali?? Nope. Somehow our kind company allowed us to claim lunch up to RM100/pax for the lunch before our flight. We thought there was a catch or something, but what the heck, we had the most colourful lunch of our lives! This happened at my favourite Jap restaurant, Zen.

Four of my most favourite foods here: Uni (Sea Urchin), Sword Fish, Silver Cod, and Salmon Mix of sake, belly, and roe. I melt everytime these melt in my mouth. Sake (rice wine) will be the best complement to these heavenly foods.

Happiness group; half of them. The other half in another flight.

Two buddies, proud even if they are fake tatoos, haha.

It's not Hawaii, but the treatment is a little similar. This looks classic.

Once landed, we are taken to this restaurant famous for its fish dishes. Not bad too.

Hotel check-in at 10pm after such long day travelling. You can see we look worn-out.

But after bath everyone was rejuvenated! Dee and my room was converted into a playing room. We are always into all these guessing games (Chai Mui). You can see Batman, Superman, Ultraman, and... Wonderwoman in this photo!!! It should be the noisiest room in the hotel (we do this in all our trips).

The laughters were so loud and long!!! One needs to be there to experience such crazy atmosphere. Like here, Maguro was penalised with Apple Vodka (in the glass) for doing a hybrid of Ultraman and Taichi Master.

There is no thin fine line between Superman and Muhammad Ali, as illustrated by Ivy. She was one of the highest consumer for all our drinks. Maguro being the perpetrator!

Though it was the first long day and night, we didn't waste too much time in our own rooms. After the game we walked down the beach and napped there instead! Such a mild warm comfortable breeze.

Good bright second day. Now we can see our hotel properly. I must say I never expected Bali to have such beautiful, clean beach and ideal weather. The sky is amazing, its 'blue' is somehow similar to those I experience in Perth. But never in Malaysia please.

Postcard perfect, even when taken by this amateur 3.2MP Exilim compact camera.

Really amazed with Bali's culture and art. They are of the highest skill!

Waiting for my dream Princess... Nope. Waiting for our buses to take us to a couple of tourist attractions. Chilling outside our hotel entrance. Though it looks sunny, there were cooling breeze all the time. Love it!

One of the best views as seen from my creative eyes.

A place named Tanah Lot, where an ancient temple resides by the beautiful sea.

Another view as seen through my eyes.

This is interesting. At the flea market, there was this huge bat displayed at the shop front. What a 'bat' encounter! Haha...

After shopping around the market it was time to catch sunset by the cliff.

We moved on to another place by the beach called Jimbaran for grilled seafood dinner. There were these cute little dancers who entertained our group.

After dinner, back to the hotel to refresh, and soon-after we brought out all our duty-free liquors and had a spooky good time drinking by the beach. We just can't drink enough, huh. After our drinking session by the beach ended at 2am, we went back to the room and slept. Interestingly enough, we had some 'strange' encounters. We ended up sleeping together in a room.

A few of us did not want to waste the little time left for this trip. So we forced ourselves to wake up at 5am to catch sunrise! An experience with no regret, even though our eyes were barely hanging there.

Yes, the mixed hue of orange, violet, pink, yellow sky was real.

Yet another of my artistic shot

Yet, yet another of my artistic shot.

Third and the last day. Morning bright and colourful sight.

Ship sailing in the sky

A beautiful shot by some of them. We split into two tiny groups. They went for spa and massage.

Me followed the rest of the girls to more shopping. More of like window-shopping.

After walking for about an hour or so, we came across so many Mat Sallehs walking the street shirtless. I for once took the liberty to join them. It was such a liberating experience. Imagine when can we go around in the public half-naked without anyone staring at you like a weirdo? I felt so much freedom when the cooling breeze slams my chest, haha. We walked to this Hard Rock Cafe by the beach before heading back to hotel to catch out flight home.

Final glimpse of our hotel before departing home.

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I must say this short trip really opened up my view to this colourful place. And to have done so with a bunch of colourful friends made it, just beautiful altogether. I am glad I had the luxury to sign off my time at this purple company with such a beautiful experience. It's a good finale.

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There were tonnes and tonnes of more photos which I could not possibly post, not only this trip but so many others. Even a tiny event would produce so huge collection of photos. All of us are actually running out of storage space. But this shows only one thing - that every moment here is as colourful and memorable to all of us.

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