Overhead #24

"I'm here to help the poor, not to be poor." From one NGO worker to another NGO worker.


After all, everyone has bills to pay every month. 

Day and Night

3.00 PM: Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh is deserted almost to the ghost town eeriness and quietness.

3.00 AM: Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheikh is hopping and bobbing with loud traditional Arabic music, colorful neons lights, fruity scents of shisha, mouth-watering aroma from the restaurants and endless throng of holiday makers coming out enjoying the night, as if the carnival is in town.

Indeed, what a day and night difference. And I suspect the 40 degree Centigrade temperature has got something to do with it.

Light Read

Finally I chewed down The Antelope's Strategy by Jean Hatzfeld over my last holiday. Before that I took quite a long time finishing off The Machete Season (also by the same author). The account of both the survivor and the killers in the books on the Rwandan horribly bloody episode in 1994 was extremely raw and painfully gruesome. They were both quite a heavy read, not exactly cheerful holiday reading material.

Then I moved on to The Daughter of the Killing Fields by Theary C. Seng. A memoir of the author and her family's survival during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s in Cambodia. Well, not exactly a cheerful picker upper page turner.

It was depressing. Why was I reading such mood downer during my holiday? What the hell was wrong with me?


I don't think I could do this anymore. I don't think I would like to do this anymore.

So the moment I saw this one while browsing at the bookshop, killing time waiting for a friend, I could just hear it calling my name, begging me to bring it home. The title said all. I knew it would be a fun read. I could certainly use the change of pace and mood of my reading materials. After all I was on vacation.

Indeed I chuckled and laughed and hollered all the way through, back to back. I absolutely loved it!

Highly recommended! 5 stars! 2 thumb-ups! 10 out of 10! A must read!

Overheard #23

"I want to live a life that matters." Ken Budd.

Me too. 

But how? 

Blissfully Blue

A beautifully relaxing day spent doing nothing but laying by the pool, reading and soaking up some sun, until the moon crept up. I was on my day number-I-lost-track of my month-long holiday back home, leaving the madness of work in Juba back in Juba, and some in the email mailbox and voice mailbox. 

It was truly a blissful day, so much so that even the blue sky was incredibly soothing, remarkably stunning. 

I wondered how blue your sky was. I wish it was just as amazing if not more, and more importantly, you were enjoying your day under the blue sky.

Dos and Don'ts in a Bangkok Cab

They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So when taking a cab ride in Bangkok, follow the Bangkok-nians' lead. Be respectful of the local ways, folks. 

Happy trails!

Almost Orgasm

After a 10-hour journey from Juba to Khartoum via Nairobi (It's only a 2-hour Juba-Khartoum direct flight but that's no longer available due to the strain between the 2 countries), I was dead beat. Moreover I was hungry as it was almost 9pm. Literally I was famish when I got into my apartment unit in Khartoum that I could eat a whole cow, even though beef is not exactly my favorite choice of meat.

Ransacking the fridge, I found a pack of something tugged quietly at the back of the freezer. I fished it out. Oh what an immense feeling of total bliss and joy that swept over me. Dare I say, it was almost orgasmic. Almost! It was not food that I found. I found my true love. 

I found bacon!

I fried them up, the whole pack, all the 120g of it. Then happily stuffed my face silly with the crispy, salty and the oh-so-good greasy yumminess. 

Orgasmic!

Almost.