it has been approximately a month since i left malaysia. it felt like it's been ages.

when you're here in ethiopia, time literally stood still. if you'd see in the rear view
mirror, you'd notice it's waiting for its ride home by the roadside.

it gets even better at the border e.g. gambela. you're 200km away from the nearest
town. you're surrounded by nomads with ak-47s. you have cheetahs, gazelles,
wildboars.

all except the kitchen sink.

i love it.

yes i do.

it's surreal to think that you'd be sitting in a 4WD looking at the wildlife just 10 metres away
from. some of them even had the nerves to stop by and look at us!

they might be thinking, " what the fuck is that yellow animal in that steel cage?"

yes. i saw deers, antelopes, gazelles. i ate the meat. i'm not proud of it, but that's the truth.
it's kind of hard to get beef around here. or mutton.

the soldiers escorting us like to shoot for their dinner, so i figured...let's make it halal.

and we did. not me, of course. some muslim soldiers.

the first taste, you'd be like, "oh man, i gotta remember this taste! it's great!"

after the 5th time, you'd be, " **yawnn**.... what else's new?"

and we caught some fish. it was great. we'd go to the river, and came back with 30-40 fish.
these fish would easily fetch rm3k-4k in malaysia.

each.

we ate them whole. daily. the locals don't like them so much. they prefer catfish. and the local
variety here's definitely bigger than your average cat...or fish.

whoa.

what else? oh yeah. i also bought a house here. actually i just squatted there. the owner's moving
to a place near the river, so it's vacant. pretty neat. no bedroom, no bathroom. just a roof and a
round wall. made of straw and mud.

it's pretty neat......NOT !

the locals. ahh, what can i say about the locals. they are the purest (not poorest) i've ever encountered.
they don't have mean bones in their bodies.

they lead a pretty simple life. with simple needs. which is the exact opposite of me.

but currently, the situation near this camp's borderline between safe and chaos. you know how it is in
politics. yep, even in gambela, lovely gambela.

what about girls? hmm...innocent. and lovely.

i need to sleep. it's 10pm local time and the camp's had a power outage. i gotta save the power
on this 'top.

8.13a.m.

goood morning, or as they say it here in Habshah, salaam adderk. there's still no water here, so i have
to depend on bottled mineral water to cook and wash. it's good that they stock so many.

actually, my work scope here's pretty much over. i'm still waiting because i still need to see the airstrip
done to my specifications.

i'm quite obsessive when it comes to what i want. which explains why i am what i am now. and this
airstrip's quite unique, see. i don't get much chance for construction of unique shit like this, so i better
be here until it's complete.

i just noticed that the feel of this post has changed. maybe it's because i'm listening to music on the
samsung 'p3. <====ada ka orang buat camni? mp3 simplify jadi 'p3 ? keh keh keh.

in two or three days, a Cessna will have a trial landing here. i hope i can get on that plane and take an
aerial shot of this camp. it'd be the photo of my life. i hope my t5 will not fail me.

basically that's it. the highlight of my life will be a visual airstrip.

a rectangular piece of earth in Gambela, Ethiopia.

2pm.

i just discovered a new thing in irfanview. you know, the pic browser cum editor. if you swap the colours
rgb to another sequence, say gbr, you will get cool pics.

in fifteen minutes, i will be bored with this shit.

2.05pm

fuck it. back to picasa.

4.07pm

dammit. another blackout.

9.30pm

i'm supposed to be in a meeting now. i skipped. i'm kind of sad to leave this place. in 3 days, i'll
be taking a fokker50 to addis. i'm quite comfy here and it's a drag to be in addis. (drag means
that a lot of cash will be spent......)

right now, on my samsung's a song by radja. i think it's 'takkan meninggalkanmu'. it's quite a decent
song. and by decent, i mean it just makes the grade. i don't care much for indopop. you can find a gem
every now and then, but mostly it's just filler.

that band, radja. the song 'jujur' is quite...how do i put it.....a tsunami just engulfs you.
a tsunami of feelings. i'm the most pathetic poet i've ever known, but this song is so basic.
it cuts to the core of a relationship gone south.

i don't know if jujur has the same meaning in both indo and malay. does it?

next on the list is....do not throw up, readers......scorpions. they wrote great songs, but it's all
in the past.

believe in love.......decent song.

i guess i'm full shit when i'm talking about great songs about all that's wrong with love, when i'm
hopelessly hopeless when it comes to the subject matter.

one of the songs that came across as strange on my list is 'angie' by the rolling stones. i don't
even like them, but some of the songs by them are..phew....when you first heard it, you'd know
it's them. 'sympathy for the devil','wild horses', and one song from the 'alfie' soundtrack..i don't
know for sure if it's the stones or from mick jagger's solo album.

another type of stone is....queens of the stone age....do you know when a stunning woman comes
up and somebody says, 'eye candy'.

well, this one's 'ear candy'. avon, mexicola, autopilot, better living through chemistry, in the fade,
leg of lamb, i never came, the sky is falling, mosquito song, six-shooter.

but lately i've put 'this lullaby' on repeat.

by the way, i tried to load some pics but i failed. miserably.

it's a chilling fact that to me, the most interesting and
relevant Malay song is, in fact, not sung by a Malay.

These three guys made quite an impact on the music
scene back then. I won't go into details 'cuz I know
nuthin'.

Try to get a hold of this track. Try to listen to the way
he vocalizes the lyrics.

You could almost hear the quiet desperation.

I'm currently looping the track on my Samsung MP3.

Listening to it is cathartic. Soothing.

==========================================

Kenny Remy Martin (Kenny Tay / Habsah Hassan)

Suratan Atau Kebetulan

Sesuatu yang tak disangka
Seringkali mendatangi kita
Itukah suratan dalam kehidupan
Atau hanya satu kebetulan

Kita asyik membicarakan
Persoalan hidup dan pilihan
Sedang kejujuran semakin berkurang
Masih tiada bertemu jawapan

Walau kita dihadapkan
Dengan berbagai pilihan
Mengapa sering terjadi
Pilihan tak menepati

Hingga amat menakutkan
Menghadapi masa depan
Seolah telah terhapus
Sebuah kehidupan yang kudus

Pertemuan sekali ini
Bagi diriku amat bererti
Tetapi ku bimbang untuk menyatakan
Bimbangkan berulang kesilapan

i'll be back in ethiopia for 1-2 months by next monday.

i would probably spend christmas, my b'day and raya haji there.
as usual....alone (tak biasa plak ek?)

new year's approaching. another number to the age. another
notch added to the bedpost. NOT !! he he....:)

i was reading a friend's blog just now, and i browsed thru some
links and i found out this really great blog. friend of a friend.
it was really a great blog. the way the post was written.
it's like a good telenovela.
which made me realize...

actually, my blog has no other theme other than darkness,
despair, stuck-in-the-past, self-righteous, stuck-up, love-bashing,
reminiscing, low-self-esteem, ethiopia, etc....

i have other things to include in the adjectives, but my vocab is
less impressive than an ethiopian babboon.

do i change for the new year?

or do i stick with what works?
should i move on,

or stop dead in the tracks of an incoming train?

should i increase the distance between me and the ones that
i love?

or call them up and say 'i love you'?


anyways, happy new year 2007. don't let me ruin your mood.

i insist.

:)

signboards

cup

sheep

dog

flower

for everything uncertain in life, use the credit card.

for everything else, go to ethiopia.

i think this is the first post
using wifi.

in alor star.

oh, i can see the pigs flying.