I am Thompson Boy

So I have been away from blogging - that's because of spending time in hospital and resting due to dengue. First time ever admitted to hospital and a reminder not to take health for granted. Caught it during Chinese New Year and before I knew it, one month has passed. Which is not a bad thing but now it's about catching up with life and work. Plenty has happened and then nothing as well. Been reading alot and such. Cooked, played with puppies and grew white hair on my beard. Such is life. I will be going to Thailand next week for a week or so and then swing to Japan by end of the month. Exciting times ahead.

So I have been quite busy and away - the painful part is that I can't leave my job early enough to escape a month or two of torture which entails a pitch for the current account that I am working on. That's the thing about advertising and big account, every 3-5 years there will be mandatory pitches or in other industry they called it tender to ensure fair play. The good thing about knowing that you won't stay long enough is that whatever the results, it doesn't bother you at all. Not to be selfish, I know that many people are counting on this and heads will roll if we were to lose this account. All said and done, I still gave my very best and hope that everything will be ok. After all, we endured weekends after weekends and coming back to work on two consecutive public holidays. On a much brighter note, everything will be over by today and there's the Chinese New Year holiday around the corner to pig out and rest. Also, my iPad Air is finally here and I've b...

Abit hipster-ish but found some of cute travel memorabilia that isn't kitschy yet cute. These luggage tags are supposed to be tear, water and abuse proof, truly a throwback to yesteryears of traveling with style. The tags these days are pretty ugly with the usual airport code. So it's nice to have a set of these or buy them as gifts. If I wasn't trying to save a buck, I will buy them. Still, pretty cheap at £3.50 from Herb Lester How about some pillows? Inspired by the IATA airport codes - travel-holics knows some of these codes by heart now and no time is a bad time to bring some of these pillows back home to reaffirm the travel-head that you are. $19.90 from airportag

Typically unimpressed with anything, I watched the trailer for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty just to find out what's with the marketing buzz and to me it was all fuss and nothing else. Sure, the scenes look great and I am sure there will be some funny moments here and there but I am surprised that people are still impressed with the same good old Americana movie formula: Loser + Pining for love + suddenly something happened = life changing experience / chance of a lifetime = happiness. Now didn't you watch that before somewhere? Yes, plenty of times. But it never gets old for some people. And what better time to release it than year end/new year when people only review how terminally boring their life is only to revert back to doing the same thing all over again come February. Of course it will resonate with people. Kar-ching! I only have one thing to say - Stop dreaming, stop watching another movie and put those money to good use or to support your dreams. Photo cr...

The clock is ticking. I am getting nervous, so many things to do and I have done nothing yet.

What are you doing? I am trying to see as much of Europe as I can and if I can still afford it, South America as well within a year. Got my one way ticket to Istanbul and thats all. Why are you doing this? I am doing this because I want to see the world. Short and simple. No, it’s not because of midlife crisis though 30s is the new midlife, no? It’s not about finding myself –   I know who I am and what I want and hence this trip.   It’s very practical you see, I am not getting any younger and trips like these should be done while you can walk and still have the tolerance for bad dorms and all sorts of bullshit. Also, eventually my parents will be old and ill and I won’t be able to do and go as I wish. Don’t want to look back and regret not doing this. I am checking off one bucket list at a time, no more staring at yet another Top 10 places I must see before I die. How did it started? Probably 2 years ago when I first went to India. I realised how amazing and ho...

So this has come around again, the year end review. Many of us are probably busy running around, taking leaves and clearing work for the year ahead. I used to like being away from work at this time of the year but quickly realised that this is actually the best time to be at work because there's not much work to be done. Hahaha. The best time to be away is when there's work, no? Like it or not - its the usual parties, presents, drinks, rainy season and while it's the same old, I am not complaining. I don't believe there's such thing as a bad year - probably some bad moments here and there and its for us to make the best out of it. The year started off with me making plans but like everything else, sometimes you can only plan. But the best bit about thing is that as cliche as it sounds, when one door closes, another opens. I finally realised that nothing is impossible, seeing the world is not as expensive as it seems and if I want something bad enough, it can be...

Misunderstood? I don't think so. Trying to justify and give phone addicts a reason to be more anti social. Please, capturing the moments my ass! I have seen so many people who were so engrossed in capturing millions of pictures during travel that they forget to live and enjoy the real moment happening in front of them. Whats the point of trying to relive them through a screen? Not to mention them spoiling it for others with that damn flash and clicks. I have the luxury of sitting next to an annoying woman who rotates between her compact camera and DSLR during a performance. I hoped she will enjoy watching the whole show (finally) at home when she could just get the DVD. Note: And it seems like I am not alone - http://gizmodo.com/seriously-enough-with-this-apple-holiday-ad-1485051176

In case you didn't know, my new fav place to read is now Medium.com. What is Medium, you asked? Medium is a blog publishing platform. It was founded by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone in August 2012.  Williams and Stone decided to write the platform software from the ground up, with the idea of encouraging existing Twitter users to create longer posts than the 140-character standard of that service. - Wikipedia Go on, try it. Read what others have to say about everything in life - the writings are sorted in collections and it's nice to read about some POVs that are more important than an interview with stupid playboy (so she claimed to fame to be) model wearing a hijab. I have also started publishing on Medium. Yes, thats a big word but one have to start and try somewhere right? I don't fancy myself as a proper writer. Just someone with a story to share and tell.

To be honest, I was quite surprised that I didn't come out with a wish list last year for Christmas, there was one for 2011 and while nothing came out from it but it's nice to know that I may be not as materialistic as I used to be. I have recently spent quite a fair bit on more clothes, trekking shoes, accessories for traveling. But all these are nothing compared to the bags that I used to buy. Anyway, like always its hard to get any gear or anything cheap in Malaysia. I have to like go through every store online and wait for sale, free shipping and make it a point to visit all the trekking and travel shops in town. Still, there are so more things that I need to get: Steripen Basically a UV light pen that sterilizes water when you are traveling. Save money, save environment. I really detest plastic bottles but I really need to drink alot of water. All the time. In fact talking about this made me thirsty. Travel clothes Cotton might be cheap but it's not good f...

Cleaning and doing nothing.

This is the first installment from my travel tales which was inspired by Give Live Explore who described his published book called Tales of Iceland as sort of like an anti-guide book for traveling, I have nothing against guide book and in fact some of my travel become easier thanks to them. But like everything else I learn from advertising and branding, there's just no point doing what everyone else is doing - you can get a summary, review or guide somewhere else but you won't get my experience and some misadventure anywhere but here. As some of you might have known and read by now, I've planned out my Laos and Vietnam trip down to almost military precision - having done that since India and then during my New Zealand trip with my friends. Most people are more than happy to follow along because lets face it, planning is a bitch. While there is a concrete plan, I do allow rooms for slight changes for example, too tired to go to yet another attraction or rather stay in t...

Ever since I have the iPhone with me, I've been uploading alot of series and video to it and watch at leisure be it while I am traveling or on bed and some of the series that I have been following are actually The Walking Dead and Downton Abbey since the demise of Sex and the City years ago. Nothing really gets to me these days other than abit of British humor and drama. For me, the Walking Dead is beyond the zombie genre - I mean its genius in the sense that life after the fall of civilization is not just a mere 3 hours movie when you blow away everything and escape the hordes into the sunset. It's the mundane day to day survival that is the scariest. I've been looking through the supernatural/horror genre and found that many shows have been popping up, some better than others and there's one in particular which was very interesting - In The Flesh (not too keen on the name) by BBC Three that talks about life after the apocalypse, where the 'zombies' were trea...

According to Tripadvisor anyway - Kebaya, the restaurant at the now super famous and IT place to be, Seven Terraces - people who knows me know that I swear by TA and since this place came highly recommended, what a boy to do but go right? Esp since I can't afford the rooms. Maybe I've been backpacking for awhile now so my standards are higher if I have pay 10x more than usual for meals. its around RM100++ for one selection from starters, main, vegetables and dessert menu. Wine - prices are decent with a small selection Cocktails - decent enough, pricing standard for the typical chi chi places Food - it's ok, not great tasting, pork was dry though everything was beautifully presented. My foreign friends seems to like it so maybe it's just me. I've tasted better fried kangkung/vegetables. Like some comments from the other reviewers - environment is pretty uptight and we are totally locked off from the hotels, would be nice to have a look around this is ...

Quick weekend away from KL.

Sale or not, these days nothing will really make me excited. Not even when my usual fav haunts of website is on sale, not even that big beautiful bag on markdown. In fact the last summer, I escaped and unsubscribed from anything that might lure me back to where I used to. But like it or not, there are some things that I need to gather for the trip next week and this includes some clothes that are not really cheap. I really do wished the outdoor clothing type will catch up with fashion stream - everything is just way too manly for my taste. Not to say I will be wearing lace and pink with my backpack but the last time I went on a trip, I was smelly, hair was messy, wearing black raincoat with black waterproof pants - get this - its those pants that you can zip off and become shorts. Fashion queens of the world will scream when they see it. The Internet are divided - some people think it's stupid and you don't have to dress like an extra from Crocodile Hunter in order to travel...

Been lamenting for awhile now that since AA canceled their route to Colombo, been wanting to go . I missed out on a chance to visit the beautiful Sri Lanka cheaply. By accident I was looking through their usual EDM and I spotted Colombo in the list - yes, its back and its very cheap. Right now it's about figuring out when to go. Decisions, decisions, decisions. swiped from Manhunt International - Madura Peiris from Sri Lanka it seems

Budget airlines - they changed the whole travel industry and now everyone indeed can try and fly. It's actually opening up possibilities to many people who would only dream that they can visit certain places and countries and I am certainly not a snob when it comes to transportation. After all, ,my car is already nearly 10 years old and its all about savings for me. Take away comfort and luxury, just give me savings. However thanks to this recent trip, I have learned alot. I used to think that people who complained about them are not being realistic and some of them are true while others have merit. 1. Savings for who? - while it's true that they ripped out all the luxury so that whatever savings can be channeled back to your ticket, it begs the question though if it's really savings. For example, all their flights (cheap ones) esp are during god forsaken hours and taking transport like taxi to get to the airport usually means midnight or early morning surcharge. For tho...

I know how everyone will call certain trips as trip of a lifetime but this is certainly one of them. Too tired to talk about them now - backpacking in your 30s is not easy esp when you are not fit. So, here we have a highlight from each area that I visited. For now.

By the time this post is up, I will be away for more or less 11 days. This has been planned since June I believe and long time coming. I have traveled very little by my own and this will be the first major trip that I will be doing alone. To be honest, there's more excitement than fear - perhaps the fear will come much later but who knows. Everyday is an adventure I guess. It's not easy traveling alone too - looking out for yourself even more than you would usually do and also trusting your own judgment in many areas of decision making. But everything will be fine. I think. Now to Laos and Vietnam then.