Life is an Action Flick

Yes folks its another driving story...

I'm roaring down the Penchala Link at 100km/hour at around 1am on my way home from a Smirnoff launch party when from out of nowhere a motorbike bursts into my lane. I get freaked and swerve right to avoid him...coming too close to the highway divider so I swerve left. As my car fishtails on the highway I hear my rear bumper hit the divider. Finally I'm able to come to a full stop in the middle of the highway facing the opposite direction, almost a full 180 degree spin. I quickly drive to the shoulder lest other speeding cars come down the highway. Thankfully there are no other cars immediately following me. A kindly motorist stops to check how I am. And I was just so happy to tell him I was ok!

Tha damage to my car is a cracked tail light and a scraped bumper and just now I filed a report at the police station in town for the insurance claim, which was another adventure in itself. I'm hardly in the city so I drove aimlessly for about 40 mins until I spotted a motorbike-mounted cop pull ahead in front of me. I started chasing him down, honking my horn and blinking my lights, wondering at the irony of a civilian chasing a policeman through the streets of KL. Finally he notices me chasing him (I think I scared him a bit), and after he pulled over, I got him to escort me to the police station (may hagad ako!).

At the police station, a "friendly" hustler helped me park and tried to suggest that I not file a report since I would get fined RM 300 for my carelessness, but rather I should just have the damage repaired by his shop for RM 500. I almost said yes because it sounded so deliciously anti-establishment when my brains kicked in and I realized that the repair would cost me RM 200 more than the fine. Duh.

The reporting system is pretty efficient, you type in your report in the "Car Accident Reporting System" or CARS for short (smart name, aint it?) instead of handwriting it and handing it to a policeman for typing which is the typical Philippine practice. Of course I didnt get fined at all, I was just asked to come back another day for the report accompanied by the digitally taken photo.

Just when I think its over, I try to find my way back home, squinting at signs along the way and of course I totally miss seeing an island on the road. I hear a "BAM!" when my car takes to the air and lands on top of the island. Its easy enough to get off.

If the planets are in retrograde, may they get back on track soon! Sometimes too much action isnt a good thing.

Smarts vs Luck

I almost committed a classic Sheila travel booboo! Many minor mishaps have littered my path, but the last major one was 2 years ago en route to Singapore. I stood in line at the PAL check-in counter at NAIA, excited to be going on my first Singapore trip to give a lecture on the Philippine Online Gaming scene at the Asian Gaming Conference. They had my photo and credentials on their website and everything.

About 5 people away from the head of the line I take out my passport and flip to the first page. Its expired by a month. Crap.

I call my travel agency to talk to the owner and find out if there's a way around it. I try to convince her that I can usually talk my way into anything, and most certainly past Manila immigration. She counters with the threat that they will probably deport me from Singapore. I quit while I'm ahead.

I'm flying to Manila tomorrow en route to Boracay and I booked this trip months ago. In my mind, I clearly remember booking a 1:20pm flight. Finally I printed out my e-ticket awhile ago and stapled the pages together. Before I left the office I folded the ticket to put in my bag. Some weird force urged me to glance at the flight details again which is on the 2nd page. The flight doesnt leave at 13:20 or 18 hours away. It leaves at 1:20am which is 6 hours away from now. I almost missed my flight!

Thank God i bothered to check the ticket again! So am I smarter or luckier these days? I think I'd rather be smarter. :-P

Clouds over Langkawi

Its a good thing I decided to arrive a day ahead of my travel buddies as I was able to catch the last rays of sun over Langkawi on Saturday morning before clouds descended over the place after lunch and for the rest of the weekend. I can't complain though because I witnessed an amazing display of nature when the clouds came rushing in full force as we were at the peak of the Langkawi's Mount Mat Chinchang which is reached by the highest cable car ride in the world. We watched the sun get obliterated quickly by clouds which blew over us first, bringing in fog and rain before descending to the rest of the island. You could harldy see a few meters in front of you, which is an even more exciting experience in a cable car! Finally the weather cleared up enough for us to travel down to the curved suspension bridge which seems to have no other purpose but to look pretty.

The rest of the weekend was a food, alcoholic beverage and food trip because the vice products are half-price from KL's atrocious rates because they're tax free. I stayed the first night at Mutiara Burau Bay which seemed to be the quiet hotel near Pantai Kok, and the second night at the Langkawi Lanai Hotel on the busier Pantai Tengah beach. Finally my weekend was topped off by the "Spirit of Alun-Alun", a 2-hour massage-and-scrub treatment at the Alun-Alun spa. Definitely a refreshing weekend despite the absence of the sun.

I'll be late for Harry

Yesterday I booked my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the Times bookstore near my building. This is the cover I chose. Like kids of all ages across the planet, I'm soooo excited for Book 7. I remember last year I also booked HP 6 in advance from the Fully Booked in Glorietta, and I actually went on the first day the book went on sale to pick it up. No one could talk to me the rest of the weekend as I holed myself up in my room to read it.

This year though, on the day the book goes on sale, I'll be traveling. I'll be in Boracay but my nerdy little heart will wish I were in line at the bookstore. Or better yet that I already had the copy and would be able to read it on the beach while getting the tan I've already lost by living in KL. I wish I could ask Harry to wait for me but obviously he can't. No one better dare tell me what the book is like! I'll be starting it 2 days later than the rest of the world.

Little Night of Music

Click on the photo to link to the line-up of Malaysian indie bands who will be peforming at Laundy, The Curve in Mutiara Damansara this coming Thursday night (July 12). I'm looking forward to my first taste of the local music scene here in KL.

Daily Wisdom

I've already admitted repeatedly that I'm a fortune-telling junkie, so of course I also subscribe to my daily horoscope from Astrology.com. Here's last Friday's gem of wisdom:

Dear Sheila,
Here is your horoscopefor Friday, July 6:

Are you getting what you need from life, from your romance, from work? If not, it might be time to ask yourself why. To fulfill your dreams, you have to identify them. Next, you have to believe that you're worth it.

Ok, not that brilliant right? But the thing I like about getting these daily fortunes is it reminds me about the most practical thing in the most impractical way. One of the things I wanted to learn by coming to live here in KL is my own value.

Funny enough though, I was just chatting with a friend awhile ago on msn and I told him that coming here was also supposed to be a profound journey of self-discovery in which I thought I would learn undiscovered things about myself. Its been almost a month and what have I learned so far? I like the same things here as I like back home: reading, watching TV, keeping fit, getting massages, alcoholic beverages, chocolates, fortunetelling, massages and the beach. The undiscovered part? I learned that I like myself. Its a great lesson.

Kuching

Kuching, Sarawak was an even shorter stop than Kota Kinabalu, which was a shame because they put us up in the fancy Hilton Kuching with the soccer field size bedroom, the Crabtree & Evelyn bathroom toiletries (which i saved to bring home) and a view overlooking the Kuching River. I stayed in the room exactly 9 hours, in between clubbing on Saturday night and a focus group discussion the next day.

Though I was tired because of the past 2 days in KK, I couldn't miss the experience of clubbing in Sarawak. There seems to be only one strip to go to with 2 clubs: Grappas (with the gay and straight community mixing uninhibitedly), right next to the very full but less interesting Soho (with aggressive black guys who shove themselves in your face--- "yeah lets dance babeh!! oh yeah!"). As with most Malaysian clubs I've been to, the music is predominantly hiphop which Goes to show you music is universal, even in East Malaysia where you are required to fill out an immigration card as if it were a separate country.

Before we left on Sunday, I was able to taste the famous Sarawak Laksa in Khatulistiwa along the Kuching Waterfront, which is open 24-hours. It was so good that I had to try it again in Alexis Bistro in Bangsar just a few days later. Just for that, and the gorgeous river view, I think it might be worthwhile to pass by that area again.

Kota Kinabalu

The sunset over Kota Kinabalu is world-class, especially when viewed over the rooftop terrace of the Promenade Hotel. I didn't spend much time in KK, as the Malaysians call it, but what I saw of it was reminiscent of one of our urbanized cities in the province such as Bacolod or Davao.

During our one night in KK, we had a fabulous seafood dinner at Salut with my boss and people from the research agency in we working with. Then I stepped into party mode. We tried Bed along the waterfront, but the crowd was made up of young, lousy dancers and the entertainment was a really bad (I'm sorry for this) Filipino cover band. Our last stop was Shenanigan's, an Irish pub/club at the Hyatt and that's where we found more fun partyers and a really good R&B group. We also met a cool Malaysian restaurateur and photographer, Suchen, who invited us to his newly opened wine bar & restaurant, XO Grill, in Jalan Gaya. We made it there the next day after lunch at this superbly exotic restaurant called Ocean's Seafood right beside the Promenade Hotel. Lobster, tiger prawns, crabs and mantis prawns...no wonder I broke out in an allergy right after lunch! It was worth it though. At XO, we had a glass of wine (that was a tad warm) while Suchen told us about his trip to 18 countries in 3 years, saving money working in a bar in London to make the trips, the collection of photos he had amassed at the time which he would be publishing as a coffee table book. Such an interesting life.

Then we ran off to our next stop, Kuching.