Dubai. Check.

Cambodia. Very soon. Check.

Singapore. Soon. Check.

Mount Kinabalu. Not too far away. Check

Sri Lanka. Perhaps. Confirmed. Check :)

China – Silk Road. Check

Singapore. Again. For F1. This weekend!

I haven’t yet had time to collect my thoughts about my experience in Sri Lanka but here’s a teaser :

• We almost bought an entire tea shop, at least it felt like it
• They’ve got an awesome store that sells really nice, tasteful and cheap souvenir t-shirts
• Some of the roads are a bit rough, so getting from one place to another may take a bit longer because the vehicle can’t move very fast
• Dogs are everywhere!

Full story to come later…

So the four of us attempted to scale Mount Kinabalu recently : my sis, her hubs (Rizal), my hubs (CL), and me.

Here we are, all fresh and ready to go at Timpohon Gate

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I just got back from a 3-day visit to Cambodia with my 2 travel buddies whom I went to India with 6 years ago. It’s been almost exactly 6 years since we first traveled together because we made our India trip also in March On the way back from the airport last night, we made a pact NOT to wait another 6 years for another trip together, and we’re planning to go for another 3-day visit somewhere else later this year

Apart from me getting sick about 1.5 days of the 3 days we were there, our visit to Cambodia was quite an eye-opening experience for me. So this is my personal take of my visit to Cambodia. It may differ from what the facts are, but like I said, it’s my personal experience and view of the country.

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So I’ve got a few trips planned this year thus far :)

• Dubai (this was sort of an impulse trip to make full use of an opportunity that came by, thanks to the hubs’ training that will take him there )
• Cambodia (with my 2 India travelmates)
• Mount Kinabalu (with my immediate family)

All these to be covered by early May Let’s see what the rest of the year holds for me…

Yesterday at the makeup studio, one of the makeup artists was sharing her ghostly experience at one of the resorts in PD, where the “other being” had followed her back home when she returned from her trip.

This brought back memories of my own ghostly encounter (I didn’t “see” anything, just experienced a strange thing) when I went to India with Mich, Audrey and Rohit back in 2005. Just a note, I am not sensitive to supernatural things and I hope it remains this way. Some things are better left unknown

Anyway, we were staying at Ranbanka Palace, one of the heritage hotels in Jodhpur. So it was at night and we were watching the tv when suddenly, all the lights went out but the tv remained on! We didn’t scream or go into hysterics but I think we went to get our other friend, Rohit, to come check things out for us. I’m not sure what exactly we did but the the lights came back on after a while, and after chatting for a while more, Audrey and Rohit went back to their room, and Mich and I proceeded to go to sleep. I slept fine that night but poor Michelle couldn’t sleep at all because she said it was so hot in the room. Which was rather strange because the a/c was switched on and I was sleeping under my covers.

Back home, when relating this strange incident to some friends, I was told that the tv didn’t go off because it was on a different circuit as the lights. Which kind of made sense to me and that’s what I  choose to believe till today However, Mich begs to differ because she couldn’t sleep the entire night due to the heat and she couldn’t believe how I could’ve slept so well

Not really a ghostly encounter per se… but close

I’d never had any problems with my name until I was filling out my university applications forms to go to the US.

In Msia, we’ve got many name conventions but the major ones are these :

• Chinese names, which is made up of surname / family name / last name (1 word) + given name (2 words)
• Indian and Muslim names, which comprise of given name + father’s name
  Note : If any of the above is inaccurate, you’re free to correct me

As far as I know, the Chinese are the only ones who have their family name / last name before their given name. So since I’m of Chinese descent, my given name is Ai Ling and my surname is Ng, which results in Ng Ai Ling being my full name, when written in the local context.

Herein, lie the confusion when I was filling out my US university application forms and later on, when I was in the States.

Forms in the US usually have separate fields for first name, middle name, and last name, in this order. Initially, I was rather confused as to whether my given name should be split into the first and middle name fields or just the first name. Some people told me to write “Ai-Ling” in the first name field but for some reason, I could never bring myself to put the hyphen in between my given name because it just didn’t look right! So I would eventually just write “Ai Ling” (with a space between) on forms and what would normally happen is that, they would process “Ai” as first name and “Ling” as middle name.

Eventually, my name would come our as “Ai Ng” or “Ai L. Ng” on transcripts and official documents because they usually drop the middle names or initial them over there. (See, if I weren’t so stubborn and insist on NOT writing the hypen, my name would come out closer to its true form i.e. “Ai-Ling Ng” )

Another thing I had to get used to there was writing my surname at the end of my name. Ever since I could write my name, I’ve always written “Ng Ai Ling” and to suddenly have to change that when I was 18 was a bit traumatizing for me. Haha, ok I’m exaggerating but it was a difficult habit to change. So then I had to get used to writing “Ai Ling Ng” and I got so used to it that when I came back home, I continued using “Ai Ling Ng” when I started working and this was printed on my business cards and on my email signature.

Some other funny incidences regarding my name when I was in the US was the pronunciation of my name. Firstly, it didn’t help that my given name was 2 words (in this case, they would usually just use “Ai”). Secondly, it definitely didn’t help that my last name is only made up of consonants (it is pronounced like “Ung”, where the “U” sounds like “urgent” or “Eng”, where the “E” sounds like “earnest”. Thirdly, it didn’t help that my given name spells an English word (“ailing” as in ill or sick).

When returning our papers/assignments, the professors would call out our names and I’d have to really strain my ears to figure out if they were calling me because I specifically remember one class where the professor pronounced my name something like “Naiung”. Till today, I don’t know how, for the life of me, I knew he was calling my name then but I did The most common way for them to call my name was “Ai Nung”. See, serves me right for not using the hypen, then at least they would say “Ailing Nung”

When someone asked my name, I would say “Ai Ling” and they would repeat “Eileen?” And I’d usually nod and say yes, because it’s close enough to my name. It would take too long to explain the correct pronunciation

None of these things happen here because my name is actually a very common name As for the meaning of my name and how it came about, I’m not gonna start on it because (1) it would take a whole new thread, and (2) I would first need to go find out HOW my parents ended up giving me my name

To The Wanderer, so there you have it I hope this sheds some light on my name. I know I didn’t answer your question exactly in the context you were looking for but I hope it’s somewhat close

Things are not as great as it seems in the land of our neighbor. Another one here.

I guess only the expats have it good there.

Hehe… dug this out from way back when… with PA, Eric and sis…

This was how we looked like at the start… all fresh and eager…

This was after…. half dead!

Wonder if they are organizing anymore walkahunts…hhhmm…