Ladna Pizza @Khao San Road in Bangkok, Thailand

One of the things you need to do while traveling is getting lost, which is exactly what me and dad did during our trip to Bangkok, Thailand. We were (mostly I) looking for this restaurant selling pizza. I found out about this restaurant in one of those backpacking sites and someone was raving about it.

It was in the afternoon, and the sun was as hot as it could get. However it did not seem to dampen the cheerful vibe of Khao San Road, in fact everyone seem more vibrant. Until now, I have no idea how these Ang Mohs find heat so appealing. Probably the same case with us asians and snow.

I think we circled around the whole area a few times, and I lost my bearing countless of times. Locals were pointing us in so many directions. But finally we found this little shop tucked away in the corner of a small alley.

Immediately, my Malaysian "good-restaurant-o-meter" rang off the hook. The place was empty! So much for it being the best place to taste authentic pizza. Yes, sue me. I expected to find the best pizza in Bangkok. You can't blame me for trying though.

I really liked the staff, who were so friendly. And the Coke was very gassy as well, and the ice was very cold. Upon ordering the staff went on to power up the oven and started making the pizza.

As you can see, its made in this very traditional looking oven. The pizza came out quite nicely and I had a good lunch. It had a very home cooked taste to it which makes it unique. Plus, I had fun hunting down this place. It would definitely be buzzing with more customer if it was in a more convenient location though.

Kids At School @Philippine Christian Foundation

Here are more shots from the school I visited last year in the Philippines. My school raised funds for their new school building. Their current location is quite inconvenient with the frequent flooding every time it rains and such. I remember how the kids we so eager to be photographed and so many of the would just jump in front of my camera lens and strike a pose.

The Thing About Stress

To sum it up, this has not been a good week for me. Everything just seems so messed up. I feel so demoralised and useless right now. *sigh* I guess there is a price to pay if you are striving to achieve something. Its not like I expected things to be easy, but I never expected it to be this hard. (This is my blog so YES, I am allowed to whine.)

The whole week, so some reason I felt lethargic and tired. And my eyes gets irritated so easily, I can't study most of the time because my eyes hurt so much. Then there's other personal stuff as well with disappointments and things like that. In fact, I had to deal with so much disappointments this week its actually the main reason for this rant.

I know I need to chill but now is not the time, considering the coming exam timeline. Seriously, I need something to boost my morals. =( I want a gigantic pinata so that I can beat it to a pulp.

Hun Hoe Barber @Jalan Burmah, Penang

There is something about vintage and old shops that catches my attention all the time. Perhaps its just me being fascinated by how long its been there. I like how aged everything looks, from the paint peeling off the ceiling to the old box type radios covered with dust; little details that you might miss if you're just there for a haircut.

This shop's main interesting feature is its cowboy doorway entrance. Its owner was explaining with gusto about the special door, and acting out some wild west moves. I like talking to the locals, they never seem to mind my incompetent mandarin and keep yabbering on in chinese anyway. Thank goodness I know enough mandarin to understand their story. Its only when they start their slurge of hokkien dialect, when I am truly lost.

I always have lunch around this area every day after work. You can find loads of good food opposite the Pulau Tikus Police Station. This area was my go-to place for food during my week long stay in Penang. Then again good food is relative. I remember chatting with some locals about places where I really enjoyed my meal only to have them passionately begging to differ!

The friendly old uncle at the shop. He was so nice, he even asked me to come back anytime just to sit and have a chat. Barber shops like this are becoming a rare commodity and its hard to ignore that fact that the people running these establishments have aged. What will happen when this generation passes on?

Colour Me Green Campaign

I came up with this campaign along with some of my friends in school. Basically, we want to get teenagers across Malaysia to take environmental action within their school, college or community.

The idea is simple really, there is a set of task for them to complete which involve social media such as blogging and Twitter. Upon completion of these tasks they will be awarded the Green School Award.

Do help spread the word on this campaign!

The official website is http://www.colourmegreencampaign.com . One thing I can tell you, making a website is HARD! I was stressing over this for more than a month. Thank you to everyone involved in building the site.

We've also made an official video for the Colour Me Green Campaign.

Do help us spread the word on this campaign. Participate! Get your friends together and join us in this movement. This campaign relies on participation of the people, which means YOU will make or break this campaign.

Traditionally I'm not really someone who is big on environmental issues. I would say that I am more of a humanitarian, so I would normally take interest in issues related to hunger and poverty.

But now, climate change is actually causing many of these problems, in fact climate change amplifies poverty and many other problems that poor countries are experiencing. So now we can't deny the fact that humanitarian issues goes hand in hand with environmental issues and we need to tackle these issues at the same time.

Take the Philippine Christian Foundation that I visited last year as an example. They provide job opportunities for poor families by teaching them to convert trash into jewelry that they can sell, some people call that recycling. I thought that was really clever! Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

For more information visit our Official Website!
Follow us on Twitter as well!

Pulau Tikus Food Street in Penang

One thing that Malaysians could agree on is that we love our food. The passion is so strong that its people would go the distance to acquire good food. I've had many wonderful memories with good food accompanied with good company. Call me radical but I do believe that food has the ability to act as a catalyst for understanding between cultures. Its where cultures expresses itself; from the style of cooking right down to the type of spices they use to give the dishes flavour.

I headed to this food street on my last night in Penang. Had loads of food here since I was determined on chowing down the remaining dishes I had on my list. By the end of the day I had Loh Mee, Koay Teow Tng (soup), Otak-otak, Popiah and some good ole' Char Koay Teow. Its just located behind the row of shops opposite the Pulau Tikus Police Station. There's a lot of good food along this road during the day as well. I had most of my lunch breaks here since I could just take a short bus ride and be back within the hour.

Roasted Chesnuts along Penang Road

On one of my off days I decided to take a walk down Penang Road. I took the bus from my hotel all the way to the city centre. The streets in Penang is all one way so the bus system is quite a no-brainer. It either goes up or goes down. Plus its way cheaper than taxis, who cut your throat by charging you a minimum of Rm 10 for a short distance.

I noticed this uncle frying his nuts (haha) while walking down Penang Road. Earlier I was having lunch at Line Clear Nasi Kandar which was good and reasonably priced, which deserves another post dedicated to its awesomeness.

This uncle sells his roasted chestnuts on a pushcart which gives you that very nostalgic feeling. My mom used to buy this all the time when I was little from an uncle in Taipan USJ, Subang Jaya who has a similar set-up.

One of my objectives walking out that day is to take pictures of some authentic things. Penang Road is full of photo opportunities from nostalgic set-ups like this to interesting people you can take pictures of.

I got lazy after a while because the sun was just too hot! The typical teenager in me rushed to the nearest shopping mall to take refuge. But right before that I attacked a bowl of "Famous Penang Road Teochew Chendul".

You'll actually notice that almost every shop in Penang has the label 'famous'. But their chendol was good and there were loads of people there. Even with 3 assistants the uncle look like he's going crazy shaving ice and pouring condiments into the bowls.

Dumpsite Kids and some reflections

The memory of visiting this place is still so clear. Its one of those things that will probably stick on for the rest of my life. I took these pictures is Tondo which is located in Manila, Philippines. Seeing it personally is so differently than just watching it on National Geographic.

Then you see kids who are suffering, eyes that just look at you with such desperation and hopelessness. Things like this drive me on to the path of medicine. I want to bring hope to kids like this.

Doctors that I have talked to in the past few days gave me very realistic facts on becoming a doctor. Local universities alone are churning out four thousand doctors a year. At this rate, hospitals will be filled with doctors. Even now, government hospitals have 20 to 30 housemen compared to 4 or 5 in the past. This causes problems as these young doctors would not have the chance to deal with cases and gain experience.

This really puts me in a spot. I think its stupid to spend one million ringgit only to come out of university and not get a job. Nor would I want to get paid to laze around doing nothing in the hospital.

A doctor told me a story of his friends who used to have dreams of doing great things. But their dreams fade away after a few years in medical school.

My dream is to build a Pediatric Hospital, a sanctuary for kids to seek treatment, a place where they would feel comfortable and at ease with, in such a way that kids would dream of getting sick just to be admitted to that hospital. I would describe it as a Disneyland of hospitals.

My other dream is to build/own a 5-star hotel, because I am passionate about traveling and I know what I want from a hotel as a guest. I strongly believe in quality service. If you are serving people you need to do in your best ability. Nowadays it seems like people are more interesting in being served than the other way around.

Talking about lost dreams, I wonder what it is that killed those dreams. What has life done to these people? Many people would label my dreams as idealistic and say things like "Wait till you grow up and get into the working world and see how hard life is".

It seems like growing up means loosing that spark of youthful ambition. I don't want to grow up if it means giving up hope on making an impact on this world. I don't want to grow up if it means living life without passion or ambition.

Circumstances changes people, I know that. No one will know when life smack you in the face. But I sincerely hope that I will cling on to these dreams and never let go of them no matter what happens.

Take care and keep dreaming.

The Hospital Attachment

The past few days have just been amazing in so many ways. I'm doing a hospital attachment at the Penang Adventist Hospital. It broke so many misconceptions I had of doctors previously. Yesterday I had the opportunity to shadow three surgeons so it was one full day.

First up was the cardiothoracic surgery. I was introduced to the doctor and the first thing he said was, "Wait a moment, we'll be going to the operating theater".

The surgeon had to make four bypasses. He started by opening up the patient which involved loads of drilling, cutting, and cauterizing. I never imagined surgery to be so messy. Well, it is VERY organised but I've always imagined that everything would be done in a very nice and dandy way. I was wrong.

I would describe the scene to be like a butcher, with loads of chopped meat and blood. Difference here is that so much precision and skill is required considering that the patient is still alive.

Then, he saw through the sternum and opened up the thoracic cavity revealing the outer layer of pericardium that covers the heart. He then does some careful cauterizing to open up that layer revealing the heart.

WOW.

Personally, I found it so captivating just looking at a heart beating right in front of me. Its one of those 'pinch me' moments where you are left in awe of the moment. Then after that he does the bypass thingy, I won't bore you guys with too much details. But the highlight for me was definitely getting the opportunity to see a beating heart.

The surgeon was so kind to allow me to enter his operating theater, and guiding me through the whole process he was carrying out. I was really surprise to see how chilled out the atmosphere in the operating theater was. You have some West Side Story era songs playing from his iPod in the background and he even had the time to talk to me during the whole surgery and answer any questions that I had.

I also liked how everyone work together so well like an oiled machine. Everyone knew what they needed to do. The nurses did very well in supporting the surgeon and made the whole process seamless. Everything is so clockwork, its scary! The surgeon just need to name the apparatus or instruction (with the magic 'please' word of course) and it would be carried out right away. So I guess this is the standard doctors/surgeons and the team need to uphold considering that someone's life is entrusted into their hands.

The operation was a success and after standing for more than four hours my feet was aching like crazy! They have such strong stamina. According to the surgeon it comes with training and time. There is so much more that I have gained from this experience and this is just a brief summary of what I saw.

The other two operations that I witnessed were also interesting- appendix removal and a total knee replacement. The knee replacement reminds me of a scene from the 'Saw' movies, with all their huge drills and whatnots. Yup, there was lots of drilling and sawing involved, definitely not for those with weak stomachs. I thank gory films like 'Saw' and 'Final Destination' for preparing me for sights like this. Hmm....this should probably be on the 'must watch' list for all prospective medical students.

Interesting thing is that people always warn you about the blood you'll see during surgery. But no one tell you about the (electro)cautery smoke! They use a cutting current to cut through the flesh and seals the blood vessels. This results in the stinking smell of burning human flesh. Blood is fine but I reckon that the smell would take some time to get used to.

That would be all for now. Oh, and Penang food have been so awesome. It lives up to the whole 'hype' on Penang food. The food can get a tad too oily though and I'm currently suffering the consequences of having hawker food for every meal in the past few days. Kinda sick now with flu and a slight fever.

First week of holiday is almost over!! Noooooo......I haven't started hitting the pile of work I brought over.

The Vege Lady

I took this picture last year during my visit to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This lady here was selling vegetables and souvenirs. Its always interesting to take pictures of people with different facial features. And for moments like this simple shots work best.

I remember reading somewhere about how this photographer takes portraits. He would just ask their permission to be photographed and just ask them to look into the camera, no smiles, no candid laughing. The results is a photograph giving you a tiny glimpse of the person's soul.

.............................................................

I'll be heading off to Penang tomorrow morning! So I will be dragging my feet out of the bed at an ungodly hour, 7 am. Its alright cause' I'll probably just continue sleeping in the car anyways. Its been such a long time since I've been to Penang and I have yet to taste the good Penang food that people have always been raving about.

So, with my trusty Street Food Guide (the Star Newspaper) holstered in my sling bag along with my camera equipment I will eat my way through Penang in the next 7 days. I'm also looking forward to working in a hospital.

I have no idea what to expect. When you tell people of your intentions of pursuing medicine you will be met with mix reviews regarding the profession. So I guess this few days will be really important for me to actually get a peek of what I might be doing for a huge portion of my life.