Fly to the Land Below the Wind

9 – 11 JULY 2010: Just 3 days after my HK relatives went back that I’ve yet recovered from my tiredness; I’ve to pack for my 3D2N trip to our land below the wind. I’ve been to Kota Kinabalu twice over the last 10 years for hiking and island hoping; and this time around was Sandakan.

It was a planned trip that we booked the flight early of the year. A friend of mine was origin from there; who suggested us to follow him back to his lovely hometown for a short weekend trip. An early morning flight it was (720am) where we reached Sandakan 3 hours after that. A lovely and peaceful town it is; with no traffic at all, friendly local people (and they speak hakka too), very fresh seafood and beautiful landscapes it has.

To summarize what I’ve done within these 3 days.

Food:


Temples/Church:


Local attractions:


Don’t know why, I really love Sabah a lot. I could feel myself at home being there, probably because the local Chinese speaks hakka. Do you have any local state or city/town of your interest?

HK / MY / PG / CH / KL

1 JULY 2010: 1st day of July, which means we’ve entered 2nd half of year 2010. Some people might tend to look back on what they’ve done over the past 6 months; somehow I would rather look forward for things that I’ll do for the next 6 months. Which category are you in?



I’m actually blogging from my sister’s room. Reason being is that my relatives from HK are here in KL, and I have to spare my guest room for them. It’s going to be a fully-packed week with following itinerary:

1 Jul: Sunway Lagoon/Pyramid.
2-3 Jul: Penang.
3-4 Jul: Cameron Highland.
5 Jul: KL/Petaling Street/KLCC etc.

Penang punye kawan2 sekalian, here I come!! Cameron punye bunga2 sekalian, here I come again!! Might need to call Grandma or TZ for food directory around the island. Definitely won’t drive around Komtar again.

Eyes on Cameron

31 MAY 2010: Went up to Cameron over the Wesak’s weekend for a short trip with friends. The trip was basically nothing more than eating and vege-shopping. Left KL at 6am and drove to Ipoh for breakfast, and then from Ipoh to Cameron Highlands via the new highway. As it was a long weekend, the traffic was bad along the way and we only manage to reach Tanah Rata at around 1pm. A tiring 6-7 hours of driving it was. I’ve been told by some friends that it’s much nearer to drive up using the old highway instead. Anyone tried that before? How about the road condition and safety?



Anyhow, that’s not the main point. Vege and market shopping is definitely a must when speaking about Cameron. Saw some numbers of familiar “faces” who I’ve seen or spoken before (forgotten where and when) while walked around the market, but I couldn’t recall their names. Therefore, we just had some eye contacts without any words spoken. Is this normal or I was being LCLY?

What would you do in such situation? Would you at least smile a little or even say "Hi"?

Hong Kong (2007 vs 2010)

15 - 21 JAN 2010: Went to HK for 7D6N trip with family. Took quite a lot of photos over the week even though I was there 3 years back. Went to some of those same places again as my 2nd sister and nephew were along this time around (They didn't go 3 years back). The weather was lovely (13-18C). Anyhow, not much of shopping this time around as those outlets were selling mostly winter clothes.

Coincidencely, took some photos at the same places as 3 years back. Therefore, I tried to put those together to see my changes over the past 3 years. Guess nothing much changed apart from being an older me now.

These are the selected shots of my nephew over the trip. Such a naughty but photogenic little boy he is.

Well, when and where will be my next trip?

2 Hours...

15 Jan 2010: Finally I have time to check my blog again. Looked at the previous post and realized that was like 18 days ago? Wow, what have I done within this period? Did anyone realize that I’ve been missing indeed?

Work has been piled up lately since new year, been assigned to a new project that requires me to complete the thing by end of the month without any supporting documents provided. Did a lot of researches and almost daily night conference calls to discuss on open items. What made it worse was I’ll be on a week leave within the month that I need to get it done ideally before I leave.

And here I am, done my project review with US side an hour ago and packed all my stuff. Another 2 hours that I’ll leave to airport, and by 10am++ I’ll step on the land of “Shopping Heaven”…Yippie. No more Blackberry with me this time around, I need a peaceful holiday



OK guys, catch up again when I’m back to town and may you all have a good week ahead.

Christmas Weekend

24 DEC 2009: It was a Christmas Eve and an off day for me; therefore I brought my nephew for a walk and picnic at a park in Cyberjaya. It’s a very nice park that I used to jog here pretty often before I joined gym. Packed some snacks and drinks along as I knew my nephew would be tired running around as there’s a huge playground within the park.

Sitting at a corner while watched him running around the playground, realized that he has grown up a lot. A much taller and heavier him now that I could hardly carry him around anymore; means an older me nowadays too. We spent about 2 hours within the park, and of course cam whored a little. Think my nephew has the potential on cam whoring, what do you think?



25 DEC 2009: Friends invited me to stay-over in Genting on the night of Christmas Eve, where we had a little party with gift-exchanged. I bought a gift and wrapped it nicely. Think the wrapping is comparative with Danny’s wrapping lo, hehe. And during the trip only I realized that Genting has strawberry farm too.

Among all those gifts below, which do you think is mine?

Beautiful Nightmare

9 NOV 2009: As you might wonder that I have disappeared for week, I went to Bali for 5D4N holiday and it was awesome. It was a very nice place with fantastic culture, food and people.

Anyway, the weird thing was that I had a dream during my 2nd night there. You know, I don’t normally remember my dream after woke up unless it’s really that unforgettable.



The dream started where I was having family dinner. It was a nice dinner until my dad suddenly asked when will I get marry. As usual, I just ignore it but it wasn’t ended like just that this time around. All my brother and sisters who normally wouldn’t say a word about this were looking and pointing fingers at me, asking the same question repeatedly. Fortunately, I was frightened and woke up from the “nightmare”. What’s the indication of this? I’m reading a book about dreams but still, seems like the doctor couldn’t cure himself!!

Can you recall when was your most recently nightmare encounter? How bad was it?

Melbourne Trip 2009

Day 1: Touched down Melbourne Airport at 12:30am and quickly went over to friend’s house to unpack our stuff and rest. Woke up early the next morning to visit some wineries and a historical town nearby Melbourne named Bendigo. Felt a little tipsy after few rounds of wine tasting and it was definitely a good experience. We ended up bought 2 bottles of red wine that cost us AUD20 each.



Day 2: Woke up early as it would be a long day tour to the Great Ocean Road. It is Victoria’s most spectacular route and is recognized as one of the world’s most scenic coastal drive. No doubt that it was a wonderful driving experience with magnificent scenery along the way. And the famous Twelve Apostles are one of the largest limestone rock stacks in the world. It was a cold and windy day but luckily all of us wore enough clothes. Dropped by at the nearby town called Warnambool for dinner before drove all the way back Melbourne.



Day 3: A day tour to Melbourne Zoo. Met up with friends at Victoria Market for breakfast and took a tram to Zoo. Bought a daily tram ticket cost AUD6++ with unlimited ride throughout a day. The zoo was quite packed with families on weekend, and it’s very well designed and maintained. It was my first time experience seeing Kangaroo and Koala bear.



Day 4-6: Planned to visit Philip Island initially, but we cancelled the trip due to some circumstances. Therefore, we took our own sweet time with city and shopping tour for the next 3 days. Nothing much in Melbourne city itself apart from some gorgeous cathedrals, art center/theatre, Federation Square, Library, Town Hall etc. Had a day shopping at Victoria’s Market though I didn’t buy much due to the high exchange rate of Aussie dollar.



Nothing much to shout about the Melbourne city itself apart from the magnificent Great Ocean Road. Anyhow, what matter most was the great company I had along the trip. I believe we had gone through enough along the whole trip that had definitely strengthened our friendship.

4D3N Chiang Mai trip

31 Aug 2009 : DAY 01 - ARRIVAL CHIANGMAI

Took the morning AA flight to Chiang Mai (Around 3 hours). Warm welcome by the tour guide (Mr. Siao Ma) who spoke mandarin. First destination was Doi Suthep temple that located in the west of Chiangmai city on Doi Suthep, 929 feet above sea level. As we have a senior visitor with us, we took the tram car up to the temple. You can choose to climb up the 300 steps by yourself though. It was a wonderful 1st day with fascinating view of Chiang Mai town and chilling fresh air at this temple.

After the trip, we went for a Khantoke Dinner where we were served with Northern Thai food accompanied with cultural Lanna-Style Performance during the dinner. Checked in to our hotel (Centara Duang Tawan Hotel).

1 SEP 2009: DAY 02 – CHIANGRAI DAY-TRIP
Woke up at 630am for early breakfast at hotel and headed to Chiang Rai via Van, which took around 4 hours drive.1st drop off point was Mae Kajan Hot Spring, which didn’t give me any surprise. Stayed for 30 minutes and went to 2nd destination, which was White Temple (Rong Khun Temple). As it was rained at the time we reached, we happily carried our umbrella and walked around the temple. It is a very beautiful temple with all white in color, which is very different from typical temple around Thailand; a must visit place if you happen to come here. Proceed with lunch nearby The Golden Triangle, which is the intersection between Mekong River and Kong River (The border of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos). Took a boat ride to a small village located in Laos, which has nothing much there apart some stalls selling local-made souvenirs. Another 4 hours drive back to Chiang Mai. And yeah, I managed to hit the hotel’s gym for an hour of workout. The night ended with shopping along the night market.

2 SEP 2009: DAY 03 - CHIANGMAI
After breakfast went to visit Orchid & Butterfly Farm before we proceed to Ban Tong Luang (Mix Hill Tribes village) to visit those Chiang Mai famous long-neck people. The village was nice and clean, where the whole village was actually supported by government. There were some nice looking ladies, but most of them were married with kids. Anyhow, I think the village was too commercialized and kind of loss its culture. The next destination was Elephant Camp in a Natural Park, which was quite an interesting place to visit where we were entertained with some performances by those well trained elephants. Took our lunch and visited some bird nest and honey manufacturers before visited the final destination of the day, which was San Kham Pang Village (Home Industries). This village has assorted size and design of those paper-made umbrellas. The umbrella was nicely painted with assorted design and colors. Had dinner and did our final shopping at night market.

3 SEP 2009: DAY 04 - DEPARTURE DATE
After breakfast, packed our stuff and happily flew back to KL.

3D2N Lang Tengah trip

8 June 2009: Was busying with works for the past week after back from the island trip, till no time to blog about it. Yaya, I know Granny Twilight has been complaining again on my expired blog again. We wouldn’t name him Grandma for no reason right, hehe. Here is a summary of the whole trip.

Wed - 27 May 2009
Took the bus from Pudu Raya at 1030pm.

Thu - 28 May 2009
Reached Kuala Terengganu Jetty with my aching back and ass. The 8 hours of bus-ride with uncounted stop/rest in between has been tested my patience. Sleepless and exhausted me could almost scared off other tourists around Kuala Terengganu. Took the boat to Lang Tengah at 800am where we reached at D’Coconut Resort an hour later. Upon arrival, we quickly went for snorkeling and camwhore around the resort. Not much surprise though with the usual fishes and corals.

Took lunch at the restaurant where the food served wasn’t that good as I remembered. First snorkeling trip outside the island at 3pm but I skipped it as I was so tired; and I went for a short sun-bath instead.

It was the first night in the island. We brought some beers and a bottle of whisky that we ended up with a lot of drinking and some cheeky games till 2 hours passed midnight.

Fri - 29 May 2009
Supposed to go for sunrise jungle trekking, but we skipped it again due to rain. It was a free and easy morning that we had walked around the resort for photography and camwhore. Another (2nd) snorkeling trip at the noon itself, but I skipped that again (Haha, you might start cursing me). Well, snorkeling wasn’t my main purpose for this trip as I just wanted to relax and recharge myself.

It was 2nd and final night in the island where we spent it with stargazing and had some quality conversation among few of us. The sky was much clearer with much more visible stars comparing with KL. The same old sky, but it’s totally different from 2 points of view. Same thing happens on our daily lives, aren’t we all seeing thing/issue just from our point of view? Being a selfish and negative us? Just a thought of mine over the night.

Sat - 30 May 2009
Woke up at 7am for breakfast to take the 8am boat-ride back to KT. Reached KL at 7pm where the tired me took a LRT back home.



The above is just a short summary of the whole trip, and I didn’t mention some of the details of course especially on the cheeky games part. Anyhow, it was a great trip where I’ve met with some wonderful new friends. Most importantly, I’ve recharged myself after so much stress (due to work and also relationship) for the past few months.

Beach…Beach…Here I Come…

27 MAY 2009: I’ll be leaving later tonight for my yearly island trip at our east coast. It’s a 3D2N trip where I’ll take bus ride there this time around instead of flight. Therefore, I’m expecting a long sleepless night inside the bus and will be extremely tired and ugly tomorrow.

Anyhow, hope it’ll be a great and enjoyable trip for me, with a lot of swimming and sun tan. Have a wonderful week ahead ya and see you all again this Saturday!!!

2D1N Taiping Trip : Lake Garden + Night Safari

7 - 8 MAR 2009: Followed some close friends for 2D1N trip to Taiping. I’ve never been to this town before though I heard a lot about it from a buddy of mine, who is a Taiping local boy. Reached the Taiping town itself at 2pm++ and checked in to the hotel. The hotel is located within walking distance from the Taiping Lake Garden with quite a clean room and free Wi-Fi provided. Not too bad for the price tag of RM79 per night lor.

Took a short nap as we were tired after the long journey, and it was raining by the time we woke up at 5pm. We were lucky as the rain stopped after our simple dinner at the nearby market. Therefore, we drove around the Taiping Lake Garden to enjoy the magnificent view of this famous lake while trying to locate the Taiping Zoo that we would go for Night Safari afterwards.

The Night Safari started at 8pm where the ticket price is RM16 (adult) for a 40 minutes ride around the Zoo. The crowd wasn’t bad due to rain. It wasn’t impressive I would say, and I was pretty disappointed not to see my favorite Hippopotamus. Anyhow, I think the landscape here is much better than our Zoo Negara in KL. Went back to hotel for early rest as we’ve planned for a morning walk at 7am the next morning.

We gathered at 7am the next morning for our morning walk around the Lake Garden. It was surprised that all of my friends could make it on-time as they were normally late. Walked towards the Lake Garden, and there were already quite a lot joggers running/walking around the lake. The scenery around the lake was magnificent, with some tones of romance if you came with your loved one. Took some photos to capture the lovely moment and wouldn’t forget some camwhoring as well. Went for breakfast after that, checked out from hotel and drove down to Ipoh for lunch before heading back to KL.

It was a short trip, but the beauty of Taiping has deeply captured my heart where I will definitely come for a 2nd visit someday.

Happy New Year 2009

30 Dec 2008: Just a day to go where 2008 will end. Too many things happened to me throughout the year. Definitely couldn't avoid sadness and disappointment. But let's not to talk about those, I'm here to list down those great and happy moments in year 2008:

1. I've started blogging and have got to know bunch of funny and crazy people out here. Well, you should know who you are. :)

2. Went to Phuket and Krabi with a group of colleague and we had great fun there.

3. Gone up to Mount KK for the 2nd time. The 1st time was 7 years back. Obviously, it was tougher this time around comparing to the 1st attempt. Aging...what else can I blame on.

4. Joined the Turtle Rehabilitation Program organized by UTM. It wasn't as fun as expected, but I've gained a lot knowledge and experience through this program. I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to Prof Chan and all the staff.

5. Very first time participation on Walkathon event at Putrajaya. It was challenging and tiring, but the achievement was priceless.

6. Went down to Singapore and had a very fun and enjoyable trip with Jay, Martin, Steven, Lee and Kenny. You guys are fantastic.

7. Malacca trip. It is always great being together with Alu and Meg regardless of the location.

Above are some of the millions that I could recall for now. 2008 was a good year for me, I should say. How about yourself? Bought myself a watch as a reward for all the hard works done throughout 2008.

Finally, wish every one of you a happy new year 2009. May all your wishes come true in year 2009.

A loving trip to Historical city

27 - 28 DEC 2008: A beloved friend of mine (Alu) was back from UK for her yearly home-visiting. Therefore, Meg has planned for a 2D1N trip to Malacca since Alu misses our local food very much.

On the day itself, I woke up at 7am to pick them up from Cheras to meet Lee at Kajang. We had seafood noodle as breakfast in Cheras before departed to Lee's house, where we reached at around 10am. So 6 of us in 2 cars, drove all the way down South to Malacca. We met with another friend of us (Local Boy) in Malacca and went to Jonker Street for lunch. The traffic in Malacca town was very bad as it was a long weekend and holiday break for most of the people. And I did observe that most of the cars' plate number started with W or B. Damn, Selangor and KL people are just too free, aren't we? Moreover, the weather was terribly hot. I'm always wondering what kind of attraction does Malacca has that attracts so many tourist. Historical architectures? Food? Weather? Handy craft? Can you name me others?

My friends wanted to go for Malacca famous chicken rice ball as lunch, and the queue was horribly long even under the hot sun. Gosh, I'm gonna be a roasted chicken before I'm getting my turn, I was thinking. We queued for around 20 minutes (My skin was burnt) before we seated and served with food. The chicken rice served was pretty normal that we could always get a better serving in KL. And the rice ball looked smaller compared to my last visit. After the meal where most of us were so full, we decided to walk around Jonker Street. Walked down the street, we took quite a lot of light snacks such as Chendol, Machi, Kuih Nyonya, Satay Babi etc. and those foods were really nice I should say.

Checked in to our Hotel (Baba House) which is located next to Jonker Street. Meg done the reservation earlier last few weeks, where this hotel was actually her 2nd choice as the 1st hotel was full. Walked into the lobby, the hotel looked nicely decorated in Baba and Nyoya style. All the furniture and decors matched very well with the theme presented. However, the service given by reception and housekeeping wasn't that pleasant. The 3 rooms reserved weren't ready though we checked in at 4pm. Moreover, the room's condition wasn't as good as shown in their website and the check-out process took ages to complete.

As we've been out since early morning, we decided to take a short nap before our dinner at 7pm. Woke up at 6pm to get myself ready for the evening session where we went for stay celup and fried oyster. As usual, we enjoyed the food very much as these are the famous food in Malacca. After the dinner, Local Boy brought us to the Portuguese Settlement to enjoy the sight-seeing of Christmas decors. The place was packed and those houses were very nicely decorated with lots of creative colorful lightings. And our Prime Minister was there as well for speech and visiting. All of us were very tired that we went back to hotel for rest at 1am.



Woke up at 8:30am the next morning for our breakfast served by hotel. It was a very simple breakfast of breads, scramble egg and coffee/tea. The portion was small that most of us couldn't even felt the food inside our stomach after taken it. Therefore, we went for 2nd round of breakfast at Jonker Street where we took our favourite Asam Laksa. Always love the Asam Laksa here.

Drove back to KL after checked out from hotel so that we could have enough rest before attending a wedding dinner of our course mate at Bankers Club. It was a fun trip with a lot of eating though Malacca itself wasn't a fantastic choice of place considering the bad traffic and hot weather. :)

Roars in Singapore

18/19 DEC 2008: Took LRT from Sungai Besi to Pudu Raya for our 11:50pm bus to Singapore. It has been a year since the last time I took Star LRT, where it just took me 20 minutes from Sungai Besi to Plaza Rakyat; which is pretty fast from my point of view. Talking about the condition of the LRT itself, it didn't really change much in term of cleanliness and comfortable. But I just don't like the slippery metal seats. Anyway, the bus was punctual to depart sharply at 11:50pm where we reached Singapore Custom at 4am. The total of 4 hours journey from KL to Singapore was quite fast that I wasn't sure what the speed was as I was sleeping along the way. Just like that, I entered Singapore with a warm greeting from the custom officer. Singaporean is kind of friendly I was thinking.

Continued our bus journey till the last stop at Lavender where we took MRT from Lavender to Ang Mo Kio, the place where we stayed for the next 3 days. Steven was so nice to offer us a stay at his sister's house where I was deeply touched by his offer. However, I had an unpleasant experience with the MRT counter officer where he was so impatient with my questions that started to give me a bad impression of the people here in the neighborhood country. Upon reached Ang Mo Kio, we took an early breakfast at nearby food court. We took asam laksa recommended by Steven, where it was so tasty at a reasonable price tag of SGD3. Food in Singapore is much cheaper than Malaysia (If you don't convert the currency). Since we have travelled since the night before, we took a nap until 11am before we went for lunch and shopping around City Hall. After few hours of walk, we went to Chinatown to meet with Martin, Lee and Kenny for dinner. We had our dinner at nearby food court (forgotten the place's name) where they ordered quite a lot of famous local food for us to try. I love the fried prawn mee here. After the dinner, we went to a nearby pub for some drinks before headed back home to hit the sack at 11pm.



20 DEC 2008: Woke up at 1oam for breakfast. This time around, I took prawn mee that it was a bit tasteless for my preference. Rested and took a shower before started our journey of the day to Orchard. Met-up with our friends (Lee and Kenny) for lunch at Food Republic where I took beef noodle that turned out pretty tasty. The beef was tender and the sauce was nice. Nothing much we could do for rest of the day apart from shopping as Ochard is a heaven for shoppers. But I bought nothing, hehe. Passed by LV and saw a long queue in front of the boutique. Wow, bet economy wasn’t that bad now I was thinking. We took a short break for hi-tea at a coffee house in front of California Fitness. All of us showed our tired faces, which was kind of cute. Had a long conversation about how health conscious the local people are, while looking at those gym-fit men and women walking in and out of the gym. From the obversation done, I came out with a conclusion that most of the local people have fairer skin color compared with us, though the country itself is just separated by a bridge down Peninsular Malaysia. Headed to Tanjong Pagar for dinner and clubbing until 3am, where we took a taxi back to Ang Mo kia that cost us SGD15. Not too bad I supposed.

21 DEC 2008: It was our last day in Singapore. As all of us slept late the night before, we woke up at 11am for brunch at Ang Mo Kio. I had Mee Siam, which was pretty nice. We walked around AMK Plaza for final shopping. Kenny was so nice to join us after his lunch with family. Packed our stuff and headed to Lavender at 7pm. We were very glad and happy as Martin and Kenny had accompanied us for whole day. We took Thai food as dinner before we sent Martin and Kenny off as we didn't want them to wait until 11:30pm for our bus. Moreover, it was windy that we afraid it might rain. It was sad to say goodbye that we hugged each other. I really hope to see and catch up with them again in a short future.

Martin, Lee and Kenny: Thanks a lot for the hospitality offered and we do appreciate every moment of togetherness with you all.

Visit Singapore 2008

18 DEC 2008: Still remembered the last time I went down to Singapore was December 2007 for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, and it was already year ago. Well, another year older for me. Anyhow, I didn't participate in this year’s Marathon as the schedule was too close with the Putrajaya Walkathon. Will try to make it next year, I promise. :)

Today is the day where I will go down for 3D2N trip with the purpose of friends visiting, walk-around and dancing perhaps (follow Twilight’s footstep, hehe). Hopefully, it will be an enjoyable trip this time around. However, I’m kind of worry about the huge congestion at the new Sultan Iskandar CIQ complex, as seen on newspaper. Damn...I just hate human traffic.



See you guys around 3 days later. :)

2D1N Kukup trip

7 DEC 2008: Woke up at 5:30am for breakfast with family and waited for the bus to arrive at 7am. It was such a pain to get my butt up at this hour. The bus was quite punctual to arrive 10 minutes after 7, where we started our journey down to the south. As we were the last pick-up point that most of the front seats have been occupied, I took a seat at the back with a younger cousin of mine.

We reached the 1st destination at around 11am, which was a temple located in Batu Pahat. I’ve heard a lot about this place from my relatives, where there's a myth about those fishes in the temple that a single touch on them will give you a good luck. Some of my aunties do hit 4D after their previous trip here. The very 1st impression when I saw the pond was that…such a small artificial pond it is, while lot of people laid themselves around the pond just to touch those fishes. Some simple instructions when you happen to go there someday; Just lay down, put you hand into the water and waiting for those fishes to swim through your fingers, and wait for the good luck to come. Interesting enough? You might lost one of your finger, but who cares as you might win millions ringgit later. It was silly but we had a lot of fun and laughter. Talking about the temple itself, it was nicely built with some colorful statues of gods located around the temples.



After taken our lunch, we proceeded to the 2nd destination that was another temple (again!!!). I have no idea what to talk about this temple as I’m not so religious. I did nothing here other than snapped around with my camera.



After stucked inside the bus for 10 hours, we finally reached Kukup at around 5pm. I could felt the pain all over my body, from my back to ass, down to my feet. I immediately smelt the “fresh” air from the fishing village nearby the minute stepped my feet on the ground. We proceeded to a light dinner at one of the restaurant as there would be another round of seafood BBQ at 8pm. Nothing could be done at night time here apart from some mahjong and karaoke while I played with PSP most of the time.

8 DEC 2008: Woke up at 6:30am for breakfast at 7am, as we supposed to have a tour to nearby fish ponds. However, the tour was cancelled due to the heavy rain since the night before. It was bad for us as there were no other entertainments around. Therefore, we slowly took our long-hours breakfast and packed our stuff before checked out at 10am. Along the way back, we had a few stops at Malacca (lunch) and Seremban (dinner) where we finally reached home at 9pm. Home sweet home...

3D2N Pusing/Ipoh Trip

21 Nov 2008: I worked from home today as I knew that I have to drive off from home at 4pm. I was the driver of this trip accompanied by 3 other passengers. We started our journey to the North at around 5pm from Kota Damansara and reached Pusing at around 8pm with a stop in between for toilet and snacks. After several calls with the groom and some wrong turnings around Ipoh, we finally reached Pusing. We waited by the road side where groom drove out to guide us to his house. Lovely and quiet housing area it was. Bachelor night was nice with a lot of relatives (Well, really a LOT) and good food but most importantly was the company itself. Groom has rented a double-storey house nearby specifically for us, which was a very clean and comfortable house.

22 Nov 2008: Woke up at 9am for simple breakfast at groom's house. Since they didn't serve coffee, we drove out for another round of drink and some morning look-around. The town was totally different from the night before, with a lot stalls and coffee shops operating at daytime. Started our journey to bride's house at 11am where it took us almost 4o minutes of drive. As usual, played some games prepared that weren't tough enough for us, I should say. As we supposed to follow the groom back to his house, but we didn't that we drove to Ipoh old town for white coffee and chee cheong fun. I just love the food in Ipoh. Will definitely come back again someday.

Went back to Pusing at 4pm and had some rest before drove out to the restaurant at 6:30pm. Reached the restaurant at 7pm and found out that most of the guests were there. Seems that people in small town has better punctuality than those living in city. I was very hungry, but still I've taken a opportunity to snap some photos around. Dinner officially started at 8pm and the foods served were simple but tasted very good.

It was a wedding reception that supposingly groom should've got drunk, but he didn't. Hence, we proceeded with a 2nd round of drink at groom's house after dinner until 2am. All of us were happy finally as we’ve finished all 11 bottles of brandy and seeing a drunken groom.

23 Nov 2008: Woke up pretty late (9am) as we stayed until pretty late the night before. We went to Ipoh town for their famous dim sum breakfast and apparently Ipoh bean sprouts/chicken an hour later after dim sum. Drove back to KL with a heavy stomach and reached home at 3pm.

Basically, it was a tiring but happy 3D2N trip. I really enjoyed the company of those close friends as we could rarely get a time for outing all-together. Besides, we’ve got to know some new friends who are so fantastic and playful. Hope to catch up with them again someday in KL.

Anyhow, how was your weekend? Hope you had a wonderful weekend. :)

Smoking habits in Czech Republic

20 Nov 2008: My Company has a development center in Prague, Czech Republic where some of my colleagues were so lucky enough to be sent there for training. While some of them (Czech) were here as well (My lady boss was here early of the year and we had a wonderful week together). From my observation, most of them are smokers where it wasn’t a surprise for me as smokers are just everywhere. I believe you can simply find one by looking around you. You can even smell or kiss them (If they are good looking) to verify it, just if you want to go further.

Speaking about Prague, I’ve got a gift from Mr. D who was back from Prague few weeks ago. Guess what, it’s a match-box containing matches of course (What else to put inside there? No more lizard please). Nothing spectacular about the match-box but I’ve received quite a similar thing from another colleague of mine (Ms. E) a year back. I couldn’t help but wonder whether match-box is the best gift they could ever get from the country itself. I’ve been looking around the Internet to justify this and found out that around 30-40% of adult there are smokers and smoking caused a total of 18,000 deaths in a year. Aw, this could be a very sad statistic at least for me though I’m not the citizen of the country itself. The curious me was wondering whether their government has done some GOOD actions to reduce the amount of smokers. Maybe they can learn from us by keep increasing the price of cigarettes and start printing some photos and warning on the box itself. Can anyone tell me whether this helps? Looked around again, yet I still saw some peoples smoking out there.

Time really flies that it’s Thursday today, without much realizing it. I’ll be heading to Ipoh tomorrow late noon. Guess I won’t have time to update this over the next few days. I’m gonna miss every one of you and hell ya, I will snap some photos there to be shared here. Take care and enjoy your weekend!!!

Coffee drinking with Alex, Marty, Melman & Gloria

15 Nov 2008: Received a call from Mr. I while driving back home to meet up at McD, where I said yes without think twice. Since the McD is located nearby my house, I reached earlier and got myself a cup of coffee (Caffeine at 11pm, not bad huh). A cup of black coffee (with 2 teaspoons of sugar and without creamer) was enough to make me feel so good. What made me happier was that I've got a company from Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria.

Mr. I arrived after 15 minutes and gave me this red bomb. Therefore, I have to drive up to Ipoh next weekend for the wedding dinner. Any recommendation for food and "fun" in Ipoh?