miss cayce

Bliss..

I'm in bliss..

I've just had a wonderful three-day weekend in a national park. We camped by the beach, snorkelled lots, night walks and sunning ourselves. It felt great to bring out the old bikini and be in company that didn't care.

At first I was concerned about going on a camping trip right before I had to leave for the field for another full-blown camping trip in the jungle but this was so much different because it was truly a holiday! I'm all blissed out.

I love the beach, the ocean! I especially love snorkelling in the corals -- I can't believe that I've never tried it before. I guess I never really knew anyone who did so I'm really loving my new nature-enthusiastic friends.

They've renewed my interest in nature funnily enough. I mean, I've always been into nature but lately, it was feeling a lot like work. I come back from the jungle and it would feel like the last thing I want to do is to go on another hike!! But their enthusiasm over the 'smaller' things like lizards and spiders made me see the jungle in a different light. Funny that. You really learn something new every day.

I also made some new friends on this trip; and got to know others better. It was also interesting how most of us weren't "fully" local -- the majority were expats/mixed because locals really aren't into camping much which is a great shame because we have all this beauty right in front of us.

It was a great trip because everyone got along well and every single person was genuinely very nice.

I also bonded with this Eurasian girl who's really funny. She's more local than I am but her physical looks set her apart. I know I'm definitely hanging out with her again because she's so easy to talk to and we bond over things like reverse culture shock, and dissing local guys. Hah.

Wow, lately I've been meeting so many nice people and bonding with them. There was also this South African girl that visited for a short while -- I met her through my sister and we bonded instantly. It looks like I'll be visiting her in July when I head over to Africa. She's planning to take some days off from work to show me around Capetown which is sooo nice! And of course, I'd be staying with her while visiting.

It's like the universe is making up for all that drama and unpleasantness I had to go through with some people last year. Now, all these great people are suddenly popping out of nowhere. Of course, you have to also get out there and be gregarious yourself, and take every single opportunity to meet people.

I still love my old friends of course, they know that they're special to me. And I always make time for them! I'm just happy that I'm now bonding with other people with similar interests.

So early tomorrow morning, I'm back on the boat for the five hour trip to Sibu -- a town which is growing on me. I really enjoy poking around the old shophouses that are like Chinese medicine chests -- they're cramped with lots of merchandise and it's like looking for treasure (although you'd have to go through a lot of junk to find something worthwhile like a dung beetle mechanical toy). It's really got atmosphere; one of my favourite scenes is old-timers playing chess by the sidewalk, in front of an old-fashioned barbershop. I'm so sad though that they're renovating my favourite cinema into those crappy modern ones that you see around town here. I guess they can't help it; it's economics. It doesn't help that people are more willing to buy pirated VCDs than to watch a movie in a theater.

But! It's almost 2 a.m. and I should go to bed now.

posted by Cayce @ 1:30 AM