Yakutania Point Part 2.

Went hiking with Zic the next day to Yakutania Point.

The picture before this was too 'Brokeback Mountain' cause we were sitting close and looked like we were hugging! lol....

We saw the resident family of seals up close:Then it was off to the nearby Smuggler's Cove:Till next time!

Yakutania Point.

More pictures as promised.

I went to Yakutania Point (that's west of Skagway town) with the two Vietnamese girls, Mai and Kelsie:Really beautiful views all around.
Easy track, not much high gradient slopes.
But the destination is just as worthwhile.
This is the 'beach-y' part.And this is the stone 'peninsula' part called 'The Point'. Till next time.

2 weeks.

Work has been okay so far...

The tips? Getting lesser and lesser. Sigh... Probably cause its still not full swing into the season yet.

Mary quit yesterday. Kinda sad cos she, Jasmine and I had already formed a bond together, just us three servers... Sigh... We are still going to hang out and all, eating veggie hotdogs and me trying to look interested while we hang out at the bazaar as they flirt with the boys there and shop for necklaces and precious stones and stuff.

They are the awesomest girls to hang out with. There’s something about their bubbly spirit and wacky personalities which draw me, along with other guys definitely, like bees to honey. Especially Mary, she is so animated (bordering on insane). I’m so going to miss her. Another thing which I found so refreshing was how... direct and ‘insanely’ open our conversations are (read: sexual). I just have to say this, they are so unashamedly liberal (read: promiscuous). And that’s what I find so fascinating about them cos honestly, I don’t hang around with people like that in Singapore. In Singapore, these people might be in the minority but here, its the norm and they are so open about it!

Haha... I actually find this really really interesting.

Mary also had to move out from the women’s atco cos she ain’t an employee at Westmark anymore. Sigh... I am going to miss her tackling me from behind and her other antics. Jasmine moved out too, course she found another place, free from our tyrant landlady (who ironically loves Jasmine so much she gave her a mini fridge for the new place, along with other gifts).
And that leaves the women’s atco with two free rooms. The silver lining is that the Singaporean guys from the Men’s atco could move over. So I guess all that hoo-hah over them moving in last week has finally concluded.

I have more pictures I have to upload, but I think, I should take my time with that. I should show pictures of the Men’s and Women’s atco, shouldn’t I? See how vast the differences are. Did I forget to mention that the landlord over at the me’s side is this laidback Jamaican rustafaran and my landlady is this fat white lady who at first glance looks sweet but after knowing her, looks like a witch? I simply love the characters we have her. So stereotypical like in a sitcom.

I went up the mountain yesterday (alone!). Zic and Ting Yi did it before me (climbing alone) and Ching Hei climbed up with Zic. But yesterday, was the first for me to go all the way up there. Its so beautiful, I’m dying to show you the pictures. I was supposed to go up with Agnes, Yuehan and two of our new friends of ours, Justin and Bryan, but I was caught up with work, so I told them to go ahead without me first. They took 4 ½ hours and I took less than half that time. I left three hours after them and I caught up with them at the top (Upper Dewey Lake). It was so f-ing beautiful.

You have to be there...

Its been more than two weeks since I have been away from home, and its finally kicking in, that I-miss-home-feeling. Its not just missing the people at home, its also missing that familiarity and everything that comes with it. But of course I miss the people at home more.

I miss home. I miss my Mummy. I miss my Daddy. I miss my sisters and bro-in-law. And I especially miss my niece. I webcam with the family thrice a week and my highlight of the day is to see my parents and to see how ‘grown-up’ my niece is. I even miss school. Actually, I miss my friends rather than the school part. Haha...

Till next time. I will slowly post the pictures....

Hike Pictures.

More hike pictures as promised.
That brown roof building is the Men's Atco, the Women's Atco is beside it. That's how close the hike route (mountain route) and where I stay.

Up we go...

Beautiful town of Skagway.

I look like Moses... lol...

Can you see a rainbow?

Finally reached Lower Dewey Lake. Beautiful no?

This picture looks familiar no? Tioman picture?

I have been to many hikes, so allow me to post the first few ones first and then subsequently the rest in later days (plus the pictures on the snow capped mountain)!

Update: My first day of work yesterday as a waiter at the high-end restaurant yesterday turned out to be fun (I earned USD150 plus plus on tips alone!).

Made a lot of boo boos though. But its like riding a bicycle, after you've done it once, you won't forget it.

PS: If you thought these pictures were lovely, you have seen nothing yet. Till then!

Survivor: Alaska

Yes, this bitch is still alive.

Doesn’t mean that this hebitch is overseas, I don’t get to bitch no more. Been really busy... nah... not really... I have been sleeping a lot. 15 hours at most.

This is how screwed up the time here really is, its past 9 in the p.m. here and it’s still bright and sunny outside. Seriously, I think my body clock is going insane - normally it would be hard for some people to call it a day with the sun all bright outside or they would automatically wake up when the sun’s up, even when it’s like only 4 friggin’ a.m., but I just sleep through it...
But who’s complaining, I get pretty much decent rest here. Maybe cause back in school, when you’re an architecture student holed up in the studio, you can’t tell if its night or day, you just set your own body clock.

I’m supposed to post the snow pictures, no? Yeah, so it snowed. For just a day... And then a couple of days later, it’s... guess what?

Its summer. Flowers blooming and the sun’s really heating up the place.

I noticed it on Sunday morning; suddenly the morning’s not friggin’ cold anymore. And boy, the whole day felt like a day in a shopping mall in Singapore.

Sunny boy, I sure missed you.

But lemme get something off my chest, I haven’t really bitched... I mean blogged... about the living conditions here, did I? Well, for starters, I’m staying at the women’s atco, while Zic and Ching Hei are staying at the men’s.

And these two lodgings are as different as night and day...

Well, firstly, the women’s dorm is run by this lady. And the men’s by, you guessed it, this guy.

The rooms and halls and kitchen of the women’s atco is like spotless clean, warm with the heater on most of the time and you need keys to access the main door. Safe and clean, kinda like ‘Singapore’. Also about a quarter of those living here are students from Singapore (not necessary Singaporeans though, we have a couple of Chinese and Vietnamese students, and a Malaysian too) and that includes two other guys (including my roomie).

And over at the men’s atco, it kinda reminds me of some cop show where a cop would just bust open one of the doors anytime soon. It’s full of graffiti and holes in the walls and ceilings. Plus the main door is open 24-7 and anyone could just walk in anytime.

Zic and Ching Hei were at first apprehensive about staying there but that was just in the beginning before a lot of things happened.

The ‘politics’ of hostel living soon reared its ugly head and clique lines amongst the Singaporeans were obviously drawn - the newcomers and the old birds (they were just here a week earlier). Looking back, I find it utterly immature of us to be talking behind each others’ backs and all that. I really can’t blog about what happened cause that would take me a whole hour to type it all out (and God forbid I take away an hour from my 15 hours nap time).

In a nutshell, there were talks about having Ching Hei and Zic moving in, resulting in two 3-men bunks and some people moving out of their rooms and some more reshuffling. Our middlemen, the landlady, turned out to be playing both sides and she actually kinda created like this rift between us.

But that’s all behind us and yeah, it was uber dumb. I can’t believe that three days into our stay, it already felt like we were in Survivor after a merge. Like seriously, claws were out even before the gloves come off.

So, back to our landlady, she turned out to be this really weird schidzo who is one minute quoting from the bible and calling the Beatles demonic, and another minute, cussing and using the ‘f’ word and going around nailing ‘No Trespassing’ signs on our main door. How strange is that?
Plus she has all this ridiculously strict rules and all that, which ironically makes living here really like living in Singapore! Schidzo-iron fisted-government.

And that makes living in the men’s atco suddenly very appealing with all the freedom. Plus, those other guys living there aren’t so bad after getting to know them better. I even contemplated bunking in with Zic and Ching Hei on several occasions. But yeah, I’m fine with my room and roomie.

Yup, so I’m just adjusting to everything as the days go by... Especially to the showers. You see, I’m sharing the place with a dozen other females and the showers are like separated with only French doors and a shower curtain.

You can call me lucky, but I’m just conservative... right...

Going to get busy once the restaurant opens this Thursday night. So I’m desperately using every free second hiking up and such; especially with the snow on some of the mountain peaks melting away and all. I just went up alone yesterday on this trail to some place on the mountain where there was actually snow everywhere! At first I was having cramps on my thighs (cause I went cycling prior to that) and I was worried cause I started quite late and I was worried it would get dark (but then again it only gets dark after 10p.m.; but I wasn’t going to take any chances) so I was thinking, “Shazi, you’re alone, its summer so the bears are probably awake by now; and you started late, and you only have a bottle of water to last you for the whole 6 hours hike... what the hell were you thinking?” But I still managed to reach the snow-covered areas, not exactly anywhere near the end of the trail though. But that’s for another time.

Oh, did I forget to mention, I’m also a member at the local gym. It blew my socks off the first time I went there, really impressive.

So yeah, that’s all for the updates. I will post pictures sometime this week. But for now, its nap time.

Skagway

Took a small plane from Juneau to Skagway. A really small plane...
Worried? Me? Nah... Glaciers and snow-covered mountains...Touchdown...After 20 over hours of flight! And jet lag! We're finally here!!!
Having our first lunch (wait.. it was dinner...) in Skagway.
FYI: The sun rises at 4am and sets at 10pm here. So only at nine would it look like dusk... I get confused all the time.

The view from my room.
Welcome to Westmark Inn.
The hundred year old town of Skagway.

Really charming...

Everything looks like a set from an old Western movie.
Till next time...
Here's a prelude, there will be snow and hiking!!!