Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello Family!

So I'm posting 2 posts in one day. But thats because the previous posts was already in my drafts, I just never got round to publishing it.

Before I go on any further, I would like to say Happy Chinese New Year to my beloved family members, big and small! May you be healthy, prosperous, succcesful in everything you do this year! May you be blessed with happiness with each passing day! Even though im far away from you all, please know im thinking of all of you all the way from Kenya! This will be my first time celebrating CNY away from you guys and I feel lost! Truly...

I keep searching for some familiarity here in Nairobi so what I did was host a CNY party at my place and invited friends over. And to inject some CNY in this party, this is what I did:

• I made all of them wear Red/ Pink or Purple


• I made them all bring 2 oranges to the house.


• I cooked Ba Kut Teh and Tao Yu Bak with Heng hua Mee Sua (What I always eat at my grandma's house).


• I prepared a madeshift "Lo-hei" with smoked salmon and introduced this concept to them.


• I persuaded my friends to cook auspicious food like fish, duck and vegetables so I would have 8 dishes altogether (a very lucky number of dishes).

Muahaha.. All in all, we had a very good dinner, I even brought out some old games the family used to play on Christmas that was tucked away on my laptop. Everyone had fun and we ended the night with Karoke!

Well, I still feel i'm missing more celebrations but who knows, maybe within the 15 days of chinese new year, I might do another crazy party again!

Missing all of you,

Cheers,

Stace

Unique Kenya Drive

One day, I just wish my updates could be nearer to the date of the event rather than 2 weeks later.

My first weekend back in Nairobi, got invited by my Thai friend to follow him around Kenya on a long driving trip to catch fishes with other fish enthusiasts whom he have befriended over Facebook.

Alright - And now I can hear my family's barrage of questions and thoughts going through their head.

"What Thai friend?!"..
"Stacey doesnt do long driving trips.. Stacey sleeps after 5 minutes of being in a car, she can't survive long car trips"...
"What exactly are fish specialists?!"...
"Wait a minute, Stacey doesnt fish!"...
"Who the hell does something so dangerous like meeting random strangers they befriend over facebook and in god forsaken places like Africa!"... and then back to..
"What Thai friend?!"

So here were the facts:

1. We drove to sooo many towns in Kenya, some so rural, landmarks in there are not even marked on google. I have been to places even the local kenyans have never been to before.


2. We drove at least 700km one way... started at 6am on sat morning, landed at our first rest stop only at 12pm, continued driving till 8pm where we rested for the night. On sunday, we started our journey from 9am till 9pm back home. Hee Hee.


3. I can proudly say... I did NOT sleep half the car journey away. But I will sheepishly admit that i might have slept like one quarter of it, which is a huge achievement for me.


4. I know every single song in my iphone because we were playing music over and over and over again.


5. I can pee in any place. ANY place.


6. I fished in swamps and ditches and mud ponds that was filled with toads, crickets, beetles and mosquitoes.Well, most of the time, i watched them fish but i did try it once on my own. :)


7. I learnt more about fishes than I thought I would ever in my life.


8. I enjoyed myself. Tremendously.
   

It was truly a unique experience because I saw Kenya in a different light rather than do the usual touristy stuff and see well-visited places. This was really... roughing it out. :) This was really a different kind of thing altogether, completely out of my element, completely ignorant, completely spontaneous and then, completely fun and wacky.

Some pics of this glorious weekend drive where you can see the scenery, the Car ferry, we did stop by a beach for a few hours so you can see some of the beach shots. Mostly, the scenery was just beautiful and utterly serene.

And here are some pictures of the actual fishing places we went to. Yes, be shocked and disgusted. But hey, you never know if you like it unless you try it! And I was well geared, I had fishing nets, wellington boots to trugde along the mud in. It was actually cooler fishing in a skirt than jeans... so all in all, I had a swell time. You can see some of the animals we caught :)