OUTFIT | stripes

Top - Monki

It happened, yeah.
Bathroom photo.

PERSONAL | studio time

A friend of a friend is starting her own company and rented out a studio in Kwai Fong this past weekend for a clothing shoot. Irene invited me to tag along that morning so I did, and brought my camera along to help take some behind-the-scenes shots for fun :)

HONG KONG | the hole-in-the-walls

I found this fantastic little spot on one of my walks from campus. It happens to be a hostel, coffee bar, and office all in one!

I walked into the shop thinking I crashed an office meeting, but turns out the hostel often rents out the desk/main hallway to local companies in need of a work space. If the tables are in use that day then coffee patrons are ushered to the backroom where they can find a place to sit to sip their drinks.

I couldn't help but be in awe of the decor when I first walked past the velvet red curtains. I felt as if I stepped straight into Ghibli film. There was stuff everywhere! Shelves were filled to the brim, bicycles were hanging from the ceiling, and the table strewn with half eaten bagels and cookies. Despite all that, I found the place incredibly charming because it looked so well-lived in, and every one seemed so happy to be there just working, chatting, and drinking coffee.

I'll definitely be back soon.

TRAVEL | khao lak beach

TRAVEL | making merit

Many who practice Buddhism believe that an accumulation of good deeds carries on throughout their life and subsequent incarnations. In Thailand, people make good merit by releasing fish or birds in Temples because they believe that giving an animal their freedom is considered a good deed.

However, many people have exploited the practice, twisted the original intention, and turned it into a commodity. So very often you'd see buckets of fish being sold at the temples -- fish caught especially to be released -- which is incredibly ironic, don't you think?

Anyways, instead of buying the fish from the temples, my friends (twin sisters from BKK) suggested we go to the local wet market to purchase our fish for releasing. The fish we bought were just ordinary catfish, meant to meet their end in bottom of a pot or in a wok full of hot oil. It seemed unfair to buy just a few so we ended up taking the whole batch with us. Three for me and the rest divided between my friend's family.

Then their uncle drove us to the temple. We hopped off, said our prayer, and let the fish go. I sorry to say I was embarrassingly squirmy when it came to untying the plastic bag and bringing it to the water. But to be fair the fish were getting kind of jumpy. Perhaps they could sense the water?

In the end we had about five or seven bags of fish to release, so it took some time to get through all of them. I have to admit, it was a good feeling to see them slip away into the murky waters. Some even resurfaced for a quick second as if to say goodbye, and then they were gone forever.

TRAVEL | taling chan floating market

This was my first trip to Bangkok and if there was one thing my Dad insisted on that we check out, it was the floating markets of Thailand. The most famous of the bunch is Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, but it's a 1.5 hour drive out of the city and therefore not entirely worth the effort. So we settled for the next best thing, Taling Chan.

Compared to the other markets in the city, Taling Chan is considered one of the smallest. In fact, the market leading up to the river only stretched a couple hundred meters and when we got there, there were only a handful of boats. But I'm not complaining here, a smaller market means avoiding the big tourist crowd, which suited me just fine.

I loved watching the women cook pad thai or chop up papaya for papaya salad right on their little boats. The fruits and vegetables were so fresh and so colourful I could hardly believe my eyes.