Oh, my cry baby!

My brother and his wife dearest were so excited about Hong Kong's Disneyland opening its doors this week, that they decided they should attend its opening cermony. Well, not exactly the real reason but it's boring to say they went Hong Kong for a vacation.

So Joey, my 18-month old niece came and stayed at my place for the first half of this week.

As far as I could remember, I have not slept in my house with another human under the age of 24 months. The experience of living with babies was a memory as distant as my Primary 6 form teacher.

Joey is a lively girl. Too lively, in my opinion, for a girl.

Any items within grasp of her tiny hands are worthy of at most 10 seconds of attention before uncermoniously flung. Yeah. Flung. And you think only boys are 粗鲁?

She knows no fear of the dark and unknown - she enters every room in the house, lighted or not; opens every cupboard and door that she can.

She doesn't care that her legs are shorter than the distance from the bed to the floor; never stopped her from walking off the bed.

Spirit of adventure? Or just foolhardy without wisdom? Who knows? Why judge?

The past few nights has been a gentle awakening for me, to appreciate and respect all who have bravely and boldly stepped into the realms of parenthood.

Babies cry. Most of them do. And babies can cry really loud.

They cry because they are hungry, scared, sick, pissed or whatever reason that made them want to cry. And most of the time, we want to calm a crying baby. Feed her if hungry, hug her if scared, treat her if sick.

Joey was crying the past 3 nights. With almost clockwork regularity, at midnight. But I was absolutely clueless what's ailing her. My mom and dad knew no better.

As an engineer trained to solve problems, this crying baby may be the hardest yet. In the world of nuts and bolts, I can examine, inspect, probe, analyse, test, whatever. But in the face of a crying Joey, I never felt more useless and helpless.

Was she hungry? Was she in pain? Was she scared from unfamiliar surroundings? We have no bloody idea. All my mom could do was to carry her, coaxing and joslting gently, motherly love mode turned to the max.

Joey would gradually quiet down and just when I thought peace has returned, she resumed with unfaltered fervour.

The night passed slowly with cyclic bouts of cries and silence, intermixed with my mom's cooing.

Without being a parent myself, I can now appreciate what it meant when my colleagues told a new dad at office: 'Welcome to the Panda Club!'

Watching my mom pacing the bedroom, coaxing and patting the wailing Joey, I couldn't helped wondering if I was ever a difficult baby for her.

Dear mom and dad, I am sorry if I had ever made you lose sleep in my baby years. Even though that was like eons ago, I still thank you for not giving up on me.

To all other mom's and dad's, I salute your courage for taking the plunge into parenthood, planned or otherwise. May your unfeltering love for your child be reciprocated in the years to come.

And to all children out there, myself included, say 'Thank you' to your mom and dad today!

And to Joey dearest, tonight is the last night liow. 乖乖呵...don't cry and sleep nice nice till morning hor!

My "Amazing Race"

A log of my trip on Sep 9th, 2005, from Tonsai beach in Krabi, back to home sweet home in Lion City. I had to travel a distance of almost 1000km in a span of 12hours. Of course, with modern technology, this is ain't no big deal. Thought it might be fun to read this again sometime. What sucks was of course the lack of photos to complement the log.

11am
Gathered my barang-barang and strolled down to the beach. Jumpman was having a rest day and was heading to Ao Nang as well. Boatman was lazing around, chit-chatting with other Thais, ignoring Jumpman and me. Well, he probably saw that there were only 2 of us, not enough to make his run profitable. I knew he would ask for some exorbitant fare if I were to asked him to leave immediately. Just 2 days ago, a fellow climber was 'offered' the ridiculous fare of 100 baht - to go from Tonsai beach to Eagle wall! Damm these boatmen, damm their monopoly, damm the low season.

12.15pm
Finally, after waiting for 90 minutes, enough passengers turned up - 6 of us in total. We can now leave for Ao Nang. Can't help taking a last glance at 'Cross Eyed' - as the boat glides past the Melting Wall. Sigh... Unfinished projects always dampens my spirits when leaving Tonsai beach.

12.30pm
Landed at Ao Nang. The ang-moh couple was remarking that they 'got on the wrong boat' - they wanted to go 'Ao Pra Nang' beach, not 'Ao Nang'. Oops, so had they not made this blunder, I would still be fuming on Tonsai beach. Lucky for me, too bad for them.

1.40pm
Krabi bus station at last. The tuk-tuk trip was slow but luckily uneventful. Seems like my luck is still holding out. This is good. Getting the bus tickets to Phuket was a breeze. 2pm bus, 135 baht. I even had 20mins for a quick lunch.

4.45pm
Phuket bus station. I officially declared that travel by public bus in Thailand beats the infamous 'Air con mini-van' anytime. My bus was only half full and I got 2 seats all to myself. Plenty of leg room and the air con actually works! I even managed a few winks, despite the incessant droning of Thai pop ballards throughout the journey.

5.00pm
Phuket town appeared to me as a tad less noisy and busy compared to Hatyai. I surmised that this is the more down-to-earth section of Phuket and definitely far from the maddening tourist crowds. Since I had no idea how to get to the airport, I asked at a tour agency. The helpful sales clerk said there were no more mini-vans for the day. She offered an option of 'Motorcycle Taxi' - costs 200 baht. Wow, that's more expensive than my bus ticket from Krabi. But I took the offer. I didn't felt like bargaining or checking out other options. I rather spend the limited time exploring around the streets.

5.30pm
After satisfying dinner of fried fish cakes Thai style and other local munchies found at the afternoon market few blocks away, I returned to the tour agency for a quick shower, ready to leave. My driver and my mode of transportation showed up at 5.35pm. So, this 50cc tin can was going to carry me and my pack to the Phuket International Airport 32km away? Great, after feeling clean and fresh from shower, I must now be dragged through the dust and grime of Phuket's evening traffic. And I don't get a helmet.

6.30pm
Phuket airport, my body and luggage, arrived in their separate 1-piece. I made it afterall, despite not feeling my butt very well, from the restricted blood circulation. Never thought that pillion riding for 32km can be such a torment. To top it off, I had to pay extra 50 baht for gas. Damm, hidden charges. And the guy didn't even have change for 500 baht. WTF...

Passed through security X-ray and found the Tigerairways counter. Gosh, look at that line! It was moving rather slowly. I realised that the staff was checking in passengers manually - they first looked up a list, crossed out the name, filled out the boarding pass by hand, and finally tagged the luggage. All without any computers! B for budget airlines, B for back to basics.

8.10pm
Airborned finally. We had a 10 min delay due to 'unavoidable technical problems' - that's what the pilot said, after we took off. Not a very encouraging opening address. The flight was smooth on the whole. I busied with the last chapter of 1421 - The Year China Discovered America. This book has a fascinating and convincing theory that the Chinese in Ming dynasty were the first people to sail & discover the New Worlds. Hoorahs for Chinese!

10.52pm
Welcome to Singapore Changi Internation Airport. Yada yada yada. Blah, blah blah. Thank you and hope to see you again.