Judgement Day..

Today is the day.. and as im getting ready right at this very moment, i am also blogging to calm my self down. For others, it might be something exciting and usually the bride to be will be jiggling here and there but not me. I am out cold, freezing my feet off.. thinking of the future responsibilities and my new life. How different it would be from my life right now, how far apart i will be from my friends and family, and why im doing this, all this..
Wish me all the best and all the luck to him!

Boo!

After 4 months of silent, i have news for you. Something that i never thought of doing, never cross my mind and certainly not on my things-to-do-before-i-die list.. im getting married. To the man i met while travelling to Alaska..
Some say it is a fairy tale, some say its too soon, but i think it is perfect. Im done doing things my way, well not really but im not letting an opportunity slip away either. I will somehow manage my new chaotic life which i hope would fill with new adventures, new problems and new eye opener. I crave for something different for so long and the answers might just be in a new life, new place and a new me..
Im not writing to tell you how the wedding preparations are going right now (it's crazy!) and i certainly wont be writing about my new man (he's not crazy, i am). But i would love to share my new experience living abroad, being married, new culture and my new toys (ahem, sure you know what it is my friends). Leaving my friends and family are the last thing on my mind but as they say, 'when you gotta go, you gotta go'. And the ride will begin in 16 days as of today, you have no idea how i feel. It's all a mixed feelings that i cant even describe. Coming from a very protective background, i must say these reactions im having right now is not a pleasant one. I do everything as if im dying in 16 days when actually, i'll be starting a new company, like a merger or something with someone that i could also call my own. A commitment that is binded by the law (damn!) where you cant just runaway when things fall apart or when you are bored and dump him. Now i know why people actually walk out of their own wedding. Dont get me wrong.. i wont do that. But i understand now the pressure of delivering your best to one person for the rest of your life! Scary? Maybe it is just how i see it from my eyes. But i hope it will do me good.. It certainly made my parents happy. And nothing compares to that.
That made me into thinking, how far would you go to make someone happy? How strong do you have to be to live a life far away from your loved ones? And when does it all end? The answer for me right now is.. i may never know. But i will challenge everything that comes my way without any fear in me and embrace every moment of it.. after all, i am his daughter. So bring it on.. test me. I am unpredictable.

after 8 days of driving, travelling around 7500kms from anchorage, we have finally arrived in new jersey where we've been staying since thursday.. it feels good to be back to civilization, not on the road but at the same time, i do miss the adventure and waking up at new places, meeting different people everyday. the reason we made a pit stop here is to shop.. to treat ourselves with some (or lots of) shopping bags and to walk around, instead of driving around. we are currently now staying in saddle river, a quiet place (and a definitely must come back for me if i ever be back here that is) in a subburb, half an hour away from new york and 20 minutes ride from the shopping heaven, woodbury commons. you-know-who was also here, flew in all the way from buenos aires for the weekend.. yeepi!! and the minute he left, 4 hours ago, i felt lonely and lost. damn it!
and since we are already at the end of our journey, there is nothing much to say.. only a recap of what happened from the day we started, 13th of july and the day we arrived here, 6th of september. pictures above and captions below are the only thing i have for you now..pictures might be all jumbled up, forgive my untidiness..

picture 1. the group having dinner and piranha soup as entre
picture 2. piranha soup, up close n personal, yummy!!
picture 3. wonder if i could live here.. what do you think?
picture 4. famous spot in the colorful la boca
picture 5. first night in buenos aires.. love the beefy!
picture 6. i lived in these flip flpos for weeks.. cute toes arent they?
picture 7. iguazu falls.. border of argentina, brazil and paraguay. definitely
a must come back!
picture 8. group picture before leaving ruben and rosa

i went to north pole and guess who i met..

hah! you must be thinking about that 'north pole' ay? i wish for that too.. but i would be freezing my skinny ass even if i wear 10 layers of jacket. north pole is a small town, famous for ... ta-da.. santa claus house. i was like a lil girl, honestly! jumping out from the car when we got there and rushed in into 'santa claus house' which is by the way a shop selling all cristmas stuff.. but i made a quick u-turn upon seeing rudolph! rudolph the red nosed reindeer.. la-la-la-la-la-la-la.. cant remember the rest. i paid my visit to their cage, said i was sorry that i ate their friends every morning for the past few days so many times but i couldnt help it as they taste so yummy. os courfe they wouldnt know as i dont think they eat their own kind or do they? eeww.. bye rudolph and rushed into the shop. when suddenly i heard 'ho! ho! ho!' wowwee.. i met santa and his wife and just when i thought i wanna catch santa only wearing his underpants since its summer, he was wearing the full outfit. i laughed my head out ( i was in shocked actually ) and said hello, still amazed and excited. i dont know why!! he was sitting on his chair, the ones you always see in the malls during cristmas and the wife, sweetly next to him, knitting i think. didnt pay much attention to the wife as i was, again , still amused with santa. I MET SANTA CLAUS IN NORTH POLE! hehe.. i still giggle everytime i think about it. i ran out to call my dad, forcing him to take my picture as a proof.. for what? god knows why.. think about it and tell me ok. i didnt even know why.. after all the excitement, i browsed thru the shop with a basket in my hand, buying ridiculous stuff and i wasnt the only one. hantu was even faster in filling it up. if you looked into mine, you might think it belongs to a 5 year old.. somehow, i enjoyed shopping in there.. and i even signed up for their catalogue so i could order more and more and more.. cant wait! i love it.. love, love, love it. what a happy place..

off to denali..

from seward, we drove 8 hours north to denali. i booked a cabin in crow's nest.. a cute and small lodge nearby denali national park. as it was already dark, we went to have dinner and i stayed in the cute cabin whole night, hoping for northern lights to appear some time in the middle of the night while online with him till i fell asleep.. only to wake up there was no northern lights, as i did register myself at the reception to wake me up in the event there is one and no signs of him os courfe next to me. wishful thinking.. one day, one day. in the morning, hantu and i went for 'tundra wilderness tour' into denali national park.. it was so cold as i didnt realized that we were actually quite high up. got onto the tour bus with a bunch of old but crazy old couples who cant stop cracking jokes at anything that moves. they are so happy and content with their lives, i bet. i wish that one day, i too could have a life like that. growing old, aging gracefully yet crazy and funny as hell! the drive in was very scenic and boring at times so being me, i fell asleep.. zzz.. only to wake up at the first stop where they had a pee stop and to snap pictures at yet again another scenic view of the mountains and rivers but no wildlife sighting so far. we then continued our journey to the deep end of denali park to view mount mckinley from a distance which was breathtaking, i must say. hantu had hot chocolate and coffee for me to stay awake while admiring the scenery and posed a few.. you see, when there's only the two of you in a group and your father always wanna take a picture of you, after some time you dont give your best pose anymore so i started making faces to brighten and cheer up my day and i hope his too.. to see that his daughter not only can give people a hard time but could be a clown as well. obviously those pictures wont be published and as much as i wanted to (yes my friends, i would love for you guys to see my other side but i think you've seen more than that, agree?) i couldnt as he didnt bring his cable for me to transfer it into the laptop. what the hell? why am i telling you all this? anyway on the way back, finally we saw few animals such as moose, dall the mountain goat, lotsa different type of birds and bears.. grizzlys in the wild! we saw at few different stops but my favourite was when at this section where the grizzly was busy eating by the roadside. twas quite far at first but it headed towards us and nearer and nearer and walked in front of the bus, passed by us and started eating on the other side of the road. that was the closest encounter so far.. but sad to say, i only got few pictures and mostly of his backside.. yeah, you like that 'backside' word, dont you my dear? that was the highlight of the tour for me and i assumed the coffee i had didnt work coz i did it again.. zzzz.
after the tour, hantu and i went to town, if thats what they called it. i will rephrase it tho.. we went to this row of shops.. one row, just to rub it in to do some shopping. apparently, cris was right. i am a compulsive buyer. i cant see shops, i have to go in and buy something. even if it is just a kiosk at a petrol station. i didnt know what to buy so i got myself an ice cream, cookies and cream, yummy!! which obviously didnt help as it was so cold and eating ice cream freezed me up and my hardly used brain as well. later, we had our dinner, halibut for me and for dessert, i signed up to white water rafting for tomorrow morning activity.
white water rafting was fun!! by 8.15am, i was already in my wet suit, helmet and paddle, ready to get into the raft and enjoy. the first splash of the cold cold water woke me up, no shit! it was 3 degrees if im not mistaken. andy, the guide was cute, adventurous and very informative. he give up being a banker to enjoy winter as a ski instructor in hmm.. i forgot, and during summer, doing white water rafting in denali. i told him to try out queenstown, new zealand.. he would love it. i love queenstown.. and i would love to go back there with my chicas.. will you my friends? we can bungee jump, white water rafting by day and drink all sorts of beers by night. wowee..what a holiday! please.. it has to be our 'things to do before you are 30' and that is in 2 years time. why am i reminding myself that im growing old? not old.. older.. hehe. it sounds better that way ay..

p/s above, there are two favourite pictures of mine. one is the food, which i have to show you guys. it was what i had for breakfast most of the time, eggs toast with reindeer sausages,love, love, love it!! i hope santa would still list me under his good list tho.. and another one with me in it, not because im in the picture but the background is so picture perfect. it may looked like it was taken in a studio but this is real! the reflections of the sky and mountains could be seen so clearly on the water, can you see it? if you cant, you will be growing balls at your neck soon, so you better see it, or admit that you do.. or else..

i totally forgot about..

i havent been smoking jojo but i act like i just did.. hah! i wish and i miss you jojo..i cant wait to see you. thanking you in advance adik! anyway, after doing my dog sled, a short drive later, we reached wildlife conservation center. it is a place where they keep injured animals and heal them before releasing it into the wild. it is quite a big place and with a small fee at the entrance and a map, we drove in and stop at the first cage, i called it 'the moose house'. my god, they are huge! i never thought they are that big, well, maybe as big as a horse but they are bigger! their head itself is huge and with one strike, i bet it can overturn a 'smart car' but then again, a big fat angry lady can do that too.. but they are huge! how many times do i have to say it? sheesh.. next stop, 'the grizzlys house'. now they are cute! and adorable and doesnt look scary at all. maybe because they are not angry or intimidated and playful and happy i supposed..i couldnt stop snapping their pictures, so did hantu. we also visited 'the bison house', 'the reindeer house', 'the black bear house', 'the brown bear house', 'the caribou house', 'the owl house'.. hmm.. and being me, sorry but i was only into fat animals and so only fat animals pictures are in here.

take me back to seward..

seward.. im glad i went there. we left anchorage on sunday morning, driving south towards seward, a small fishing town about 2 hours drive from anchorage. 50 miles out, we stopped by at girdwood where i took my heli ride, landed on a glacier and greeted by 80 huskies and 2 mushers.. yummy for both! the dogs and the keepers.. after 15 minutes of briefing and listening to the history of dog sled, i went around looking for the perfect husky to play with. although they all looked cute and cuddly and scary as well, i cant make up my mind on choosing which one would be my favourite.. i dont know why i do that all the time but i had to do it. my favourite is called ... shit, i forgot. dario, the italian musher could remember the whole pack and i cant remember one. i cant be a musher then..are you happy my dear? i will keep on calling the wrong name and will be wondering why they are not listening to me. damn i love the dog sled ride.. i love it! part of me felt like i was a santa claus minus the red outfit, reindeers and big fat tummy os courfe.. but yeah, the ride was the same, i feel, in some way. and for one moment, i also felt like i was living in the old ice age like a real eskimo or maybe i just dream too hard or too much tv.. i dont know.. you go figure. this is definitely a must try for anyone who is in alaska.. where else can you do this? dog sled with a good looking italian musher on a glacier, 1000feet above sea level overlooking gorgeous mountain and being drop off and pick up by a heli.. it was a perfect way to start my day.
and i slept all the way to seward.. hehe. didnt see the view for nuts! the next thing i know, i was already on 4th avenue, seward and one wrong turning, led us to this stream full of salmon swimming against the current, up stream, looking all ugly and scary and yucky for some, lay eggs and die. what a tragic way to die! either they die eaten by bears, human or love for their eggs.. hehe, sound familiar, correct? aint that a sweet love? hehe.. again. not so when you see them minutes before they r.i.p.. u-g-l-y. sor sar, no offence but my love is only for halibut, which is ugly too but who cares, they taste great! we checked in, walked around town, their teeny weeny town which i love, love, love, i dont know why and head to ray's, a favourite restaurant of mine that i could never get enough. now, why do i say this? because i basically tried every main dish that they have throughout my stay in seward and all the dishes are superbly cooked! honestly.. i could eat it, again and again. they have 4 styles of cooking halibut..if im not mistaken, hmm.. maybe thats why i like it so much.
the next morning, we were off on a cruise to see glaciers and wildlife in the open sea. the weather was gloomy and windy but to me, i like it. i hate it when its all sunny and i get all tanned. not for long, we came across sea otter (fluffy and fatty) which i adore so much as they are so cute floating around on their back, a family of orcas swimming gracefully (i love big fat revengeful orca) , sea lions sunbathing on the rock with flippers covering their face as if they were shy to be seen but not.. and this new kinda bird to me called puffin. they are small, adorable for a bird (this is something coz i dont like birds) and loves to sit around, floating in the middle of the sea, just like us having coffee in bangsar cafes, thats how they looked like in the middle of the sea. we also get to see and get close to the glacier and listened to the ice break away and fell into the water. its magnificent and incredible how loud the sound could be. it sounds like thunder, a huge one as if it was about to rain heavily when actually a small fraction of the whole glacier was falling off. it is a wonder, only when you see how nature works you would feel so small in this world.. i know i did. looking at the iceberg too made me feel like i was in the set of titanic.. for one second, i laughed,a small lil laugh.. you jump, i jump remember? hell no! you jump, i stay and wish you bye bye.. i stayed at the bridge with the captain who looks and sound like kevin costner. remember friends? that i used to like kevin costner? hehe.. we talked and i learnt a thing or two.. all the way back to the port and dock.
seward.. i will certainly come back for you.. that is for sure. be it for fishing, boating, eating, 'love making at a cabin on a cliff'.. as ive said, i love small towns and seward is definitely on my list.