Crazy for Photography

Raspberry Cheese Cake

2012-08-16T22:20:00.001+08:00

Since I’ve got my smart phone and installed Instagram, I think I found a better way to share my photos, better is in the sense of efficiency and convenience. Yet, there are some post need to elaborate and share in details, e.g. my vacation photos and diary, but will cut down those posts of food or restaurants that I’ve visited.

When technology gets more convenient and sophisticated, human tends to be lazier, e.g. in the era without phone, we wrote letter with perfume paper and beautiful sticker and stamps; in the era without mobile phone, we will walk miles to public phone to call regardless of good or bad weather; in the era with smart phone, we whatapps, fb to wish happy birthday… Technology shortened the distance and at the same time, seems lengthened the distance as the same time. But of course I still appreciate technology that has improved our lives…

I’ve no idea why am I writing such an emotional intro, sounds like a goodbye or something… Come back to the topic, this is the cake that I bake for one of my betties, Kitman, for her birthday. I’m so sorry for her because she always see me posting cake I baked for others but I’ve never bake one for her, even we know each other for about 15 years, almost half of my life.

This cake took me 2 days to finished, baking layer by layer, took time and definitely need patience to let each layer to set, because she deserved the best. Bottom is the digestive biscuit, 2nd lower is the cheese layer, 2nd upper is raspberry mousse and top is raspberry jelly. And of course I’m glad the birthday girl like it. I hope, I really hope I can bake you cake for birthday till I can’t bake anymore.

动地吟

2012-07-08T11:19:00.000+08:00

我不是文人，语文科目也没有考很高分，天分欠缺，但是我很支持艺术活动，就如我常讲的，我特别容易被这些艺术家的热情感染，他们的热情是我的充电器。

朋友邀我一起去观看动地吟，墓地动地吟，虽然在墓地但是一点都不阴森，现在的墓地都很摩登，整个环境看起来像公园多余墓园 - 这是对场地的印象。动地吟这名字对我来说其实有点陌生，听过，但不知何物。得知创办者之一是我以前的副校长 - 傅承得，表演者之一是我以前的美术老师 - 吴圣雄，好像就跟这活动更贴近一些些，纯粹是自己在“认亲认戚”。我们一群人浩浩荡荡闯入墓园但没有人知道这活动耗时多久，我们都空腹入场，盘算等一下要去那儿吃好料。入场时是兴奋的、期待的。

当天大道发生严重车祸，导致很多重要的人物无法准时，所以活动接近晚上7点半才开始。活动有诗歌朗诵、诗曲演唱、舞蹈、击乐等。所吟唱的诗很多都与政治有关，现场气氛虽然没有如一些政治人物发表公开演说般激昂，也没有某政党支持者在现场把气氛炒热喧哗，观众都很安分的欣赏，学生偶尔窃窃私语讨论笔记。。。但是我的胃却不安分，胃液在身体内兴风作浪；心脏也不守纪，不规律的悸动让我很难专心。这种艺术让我吃不消，对我来说太承重了，即便这样，我还是等到活动结束才离开，我实在不忍吹促友人提早离场。当我走到车子开车的那一霎那，我的胃和心也即时平复下来。

我无法分享我的观后感，我只能承认我软弱，我无法正眼面对政治这一块。

Assorted stories in Korea

2012-06-05T10:26:00.000+08:00

Before I start, I have to advice that followings are merely my personal point of view, things and people that I've came across during my latest trip to Seoul and Jeju Island, they might not represent the country or people in general.

We, group of 6 spent 6 days in Seoul and 4 days in Jeju Island. It's a memorable trip, I wish I could record as many details as possible. Will record the daily itinerary in my later posts, this post just to list down few interesting points that I feel.

1. People

I find that the Korean are very friendly and kind, we encountered some problems in the trip and the people there never hesitate to lend us their hands. For example, on the day we arrived, the owner of the guesthouse overslept and locked us out on the street, an uncle wearing flower shirt (also wearing a sunny smile on his face) passed by offered us his cell phone to call the owner and called the police to help. Although at the end non of him and the police officers can help, but I am grateful for his kind gestures.

Then a staff who is working in another guesthouse (she is actually a Taiwanese working while learning Korean there) helped us to contact all guesthouse nearby just to get us a place to rest, she speaks fluent Korean, watching her kept talking on the phone at 1 in the morning, I was touched, if I were a guy, I'll definitely fall for her.

Then another day when we were suppose to catch a bus to Nami Island but we missed it, a pedestrian saw us searching up and down and so he came to offer us some help to call the travel agency, suggesting us an alternative way to Nami Island, although he speaks neither English nor Mandarin, I know he was trying his very best to help. How could you not touched by all these?

Will you help a tourist when he/ she looked like in need of any form of help? I won't say no, but I will hesitate, why? Worth think about it.

2. Public toilet

I always got surprise to explore the public toilet in Korea. Usually we will only get surprise when thing happen out of norm. I'm too use to visit a public toilet which has no toilet paper inside, shoe prints on the seat, wet floor, bad smell and etc. Public toilets are not the same in Korea. How can they maintain the toilet so well? Is it because of civilized people or hardworking cleaner or good management system?

3. Language

When I was telling others that I'll be going to Korea, the most common comment that I get is, "are you travel on your own or follow a tour? Communication is an issue there." so, we downloaded apps which can help us to do translation, in case. But, throughout the trip, I don't think language is really a big issue, some of them speak simple English, I even met a guy in MRT and he speaks very fluent English, we can chat about country GDP, safety, tourists spots, economy... And most of the shopping mall, they hire staffs who can speak mandarin as well, of course some of them are China Chinese or Taiwanese, but some are local Korean! They have also a very big banner at the airport written in Chinese, welcome the Chinese (China) to visit their country, smart! Of course there are still a lot of ppl speak only Korean, but again, because they are very friendly, they will try their best way to communicate with u.

4. Fashion trend

Hallyu is real hot everywhere, not only in Asia, but all around the world, and not applicable to only K-pop music, but food and fashion too. Besides the Japanese, Hongkies and Taiwanese, Korean is quite trendy too, I think. But the way the Korean follows the trend is slightly different from the other nations that I mentioned. They are trendy, but not a lot of variation, for example, the shoes, Tom's, I think is in trend, so you will find a lot of youngsters wearing the shoes, as if it's uniform. So, it's not hard to find what's in and what's out at the moment, and now, another in trend item is the big black frame spectacles.

5. Plastic surgery
I am not an expert in differentiating people before and after plastic surgery, my friends said most of the Koreans have done that, erm... I have no comment, but generally, I think the lady, sorry to say, most of them are not natural beauty, they wear heavy makeup, nice to see from far but not close up, so, even they have nice skin, I can't tell what's hiding under the makeup.
Korean, no matter guy or gal, they have big frame, not fat, but just bigger in size, so for guys, they have nice body, I think the reasons might be they take good care of their out look (so they go to gym) and they have to serve in the army too, wow, they are real hot (applicable to their bodies only, not the face, lol). However, for the gals, big frame isn't an usual term we use to describe a beautiful lady.

6. Safety
I think Seoul is a safe city, at least you don't feel threaten when you are walking alone late night. Friends said because we didn't read the newspaper, we only spend few days there, so we can't really judge, yes, we can't judge but I can feel, compare to some of the countries I visited throughout the years, I think Seoul is safe.
Not to mention in Jeju Island, they have these terms Samda: 3 abundancies (rocks, wind and women) and Sammu: 3 lacks (thief, gate and beggar). From the Sammu, you can tell how safe is this wonderful island.

7. Living expenses
The living expenses in Korea is quite high compare to other Asia countries, a bowl of instant noodle by the roadside costed about RM9, well, I think this is expensive. And anything that labelled "Made in Korea" usually charge higher compare to imported stuffs. However in another hand, the duty free stuffs are worth buying, but those stuffs are usually branded items. So, if you are intended to buy branded items (bags, cosmetics, clothes, skin care and etc.), you will be happy to shop till drop!

So, that how I see and feel about Seoul and Jeju Island... will definitely visit these places again, till I save enough "bullets"...

Putien, 1 Utama

2012-05-18T16:30:00.000+08:00

When I saw the notice board saying that this restaurant was going to set up a branch in 1 Utama shopping mall, I can’t wait to share this with my friends who are PR-ing in Singapore, they brought me there the last time when I visited to Singapore and I like the food that they served.

Dishes which are highly recommended: 九转肠 (Nine layers of pork intestine), 芋香鸭 (Crispy yam duck), 兴化米粉 (Xinghua rice noodle), 卤面 (stewed noodle), etc.

I was in my diet plan so I only try a piece of each dish above when I was dining with friends in Putien that day and skipped the noodles. Will definitely go there again with parents next time!

Putien
G213A, Ground Floor
Promenade Section
1 Utama Shopping Centre (Old Wing)
Bandar Utama
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-77221539

Genting Strawberry Park

2012-05-17T16:00:00.000+08:00

Another old dated post which was suppose to be done in Feb… I was thinking to click the x button but few days back, I was searching for something and I found it in my history post, a post which was posted in year 2008, it reminds me the reason why I started blogging years back, one day, when I got old, looking back, this will be a very good photo album with all the stories & feelings that I had & experienced, I should keep blogging…

I know I shouldn’t have any complaint in life, life is always beautiful just the matter in how you look at it. But, by saying is easy, I was quite depressed for a long period time, no specific reason, or probably I’ve been accumulating a lot of bad feeling/ energy unconsciously within myself, and I don’t know how to get rid of it. I think my parents know (as I’m extremely quiet at home), just that they also don’t know how to comfort me, so sometimes they have this idea of doing day trip somewhere, in their mind, I’m always a kid who likes to go out or “gai gai” (road trip).

This time, they brought me to Genting Strawberry Park…

Before going up to Gohtong Jaya, we had lunch in Bentong – Ginger chicken rice noodle & clay pot tilapia fish, yummy…

Genting Strawberry Park isn’t exactly all the way up in Genting but in Gohtong Jaya. This park is kinda new, seems maintaining quite well, not over charging and I think is a good place where parents and school teachers can consider to bring kids here learning through play. We be able to pluck the strawberry too, just that you have pay what you have plucked la…

Lettuce farm & passion fruit farm too… not a big farm, but at least you know the lettuce and passion fruit didn’t come from hypermarket vegetable section.

Beautiful wild orchid & calla lily

P/S: Road trip therapy doesn’t always help, but I know my parents are the persons who love me the most in the world.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

2012-04-19T11:03:00.001+08:00

Haven’t bake for a period of time, and last 2 months, the strawberry which imported from Korea was so fresh and sweet, coincidently I also found a recipe of making Japanese strawberry short cake, so, I thought I should give it a try. At first I was following the method written to prepare the short cake, however, I failed, yet I need to figure out how to settle 2 boxes of strawberry that I bought, so, I follow the usual way of making sponge cake (refer http://unprofessionalphotography.blogspot.com/2011/03/lemon-peach-mousse-cake_29.html), cut and layered the cake with whipped cream and strawberry cubes, then cover the cake with whipped cream and decorated with strawberry slices… muak, lovely! (self-praise again ) I think, baking is still quite therapeutic for me, instead of shopping.

Later on when I was surfing the net, I came to this page http://www.lafujimama.com/2010/07/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/, she is also using sponge and I think, one day I would love to this her recipe.

Brotzeit – German Bier Bar & Restaurant

2012-04-08T21:45:00.000+08:00

I didn’t count the weightage of me posting food compare to other, I guess must be 80:20, . Among the 4 essentials, cloth, food, shelter and transportation, I used to prioritize food as my top priority, but lately I lost my appetite, I used to eat a lot, especially those that I like, but lately if you were to ask me if I’m finding any unique restaurant or asking around any good recommendation, I’m not… why? Never thought that this could happen to me, probably my subconsciously I’m stopping myself for food, I really need to go on a healthier and more moderate eating. While saying this, look at what I’ve post for the last 4 or 5 posts! They are all FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD! Probably eating too much before this, made me a bit guilty to my body & weight…

This German restaurant was recommended by my colleague's ex-colleagues… That night was crazy… look at what we did…

Me & the 3-litre Paulaner

(I’m not a beer lover, just trying to drink the beer with this gigantic beer glass)

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I was bringing my besties – QY & KM for dinner the other day, besides pork knuckle, I don’t think I’m familiar with German food… let’s try!

The beautiful interior, my favourite is the beer bottle wall

While waiting for QY, me & KM was starving, so, we ordered this onion soup with cheese dumpling as our “pre starter”… omg, love at 1st try!

Roasted potatoes and salad were picked as our starters. The salad is super yummy, they are not all raw, some for example the cucumber, I think the chef has heated or steamed or smoked a little…

Wahahahahahaha… here come the main course!!

The girls were terrified by the portion, me too, but I remember it wasn’t this big when we take this to go with the beer at the crazy night, we had to order few bowls of fries and wedges too, this time, it was really too much for 3 girls. This platter allows us to try all the signature dishes, all type of sausages, pork cutlet, pork knuckle too!

I really like the restaurant although the food & beverage are a bit pricy, and the table near the beer bottle wall has some mosquitoes, I will still highly recommend BROTZEIT!

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Brotzeit – German Bier Bar & Restaurant

Add: G(E)-018, Ground External Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City Lingkaran Syed Putra, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-22875516

Operating Hours: Sun - Thu: 11:00 – 00:00, Fri & Sat: 11:00 – 01:00

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P/S: All photos were taken by my new toy iPhone 4S since my previous 2 posts http://www.unprofessionalphotography.blogspot.com/2012/03/handcrafted-coffee-full-of-beans.html

Do you think the photos are as nice as taken by my compact digital camera Panasonic (Lumix) DMC-TZ7?

Restauran Light House Seafood, Taiping

2012-03-30T10:19:00.000+08:00

This wasn’t a food trip, it was a trip to attend my god-sister’s wedding in Penang island during Christmas. We were god-sisters since we both participated a community service during our college time and we were both assigned to the same foster family.

The bride is my god-sister, the lady in purple next to my god-sister and me is my foster mother, and the guy in blue batik next to the groom is my foster father, the young lady in black dress front row is their daughter aka my foster sister.

The community service was a compulsory activity in the college if you didn’t choose any of the sport curriculum to earn the credit point. Obviously I was joining this instead of sport, I’m not a sport person since young. Looking back, it was fun and meaningful, we visited a rural village in group of about 40, with the mission to close the educational gap between the city and rural village, and I got to know this group of “member” who are very kind-hearted and fun too.

Most of us were actually going to Penang from KL, we car-pooled and when we were traveling back to KL, we stopped by Taiping to visit another member who is staying in Taiping. She brought us to this restaurant which was hiding nowhere, but apparently very famous in the country! Their specialty is seafood porridge, look at the pot that we ordered!!! So huge!!! So YUMMY!!! I must remember how to get there… will sure come again for this.

We ordered a dish of clam and fried fish too… OMG, the clam was so good, believe me, I can’t stop once started! As for the fish… I do not know how to appreciate this dish, the other members like it, they ate the bone too.

The signboard of the restaurant and us, my beloved 2000 community service group 7 members!

Handcrafted Coffee - Full of Beans

2012-03-29T19:15:00.000+08:00

It’s hard to relate me to coffee, because I can’t tolerate with caffeine, of course I love the coffee scent, like to go cafe with friends, and I support art, anything related to art, I admire artists’ passion, their unlimited inspiration… and these are what I don’t have. When I was traveling to Penang last Dec, my bestie brought me to the new mall – Strait Quay, it has variety of unique restaurants, nice scenery because it’s by the sea, but still a bit quiet due to new opening I guess, then we discover this cafe – Full of Beans, handcrafted specialty coffee.

The young and pretty barista was syphoning our coffee… this is what we called art (coffee and pretty girl) and science (syphon the method)!!!

Lemon cake to go with our syphon coffees, I forgot what’s my bestie’s husband order, but he likes it black, and we girls want coffee but at the same time afraid of the after effect, so we had latte. Cake was too sour to eat alone, but to go with coffee, wow, it’s another experience, lemon and bitter coffee can be besties too!

The happy girls…

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FULL OF BEANS

(Handcrafted Specialty Cofee)

Unit 3A-1-6, Block A, First Floor, Straits Quay, Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang, 10470

Pastry House KL

2012-03-27T23:01:00.001+08:00

Through friend recommendation, now I’ve got another place to hang out! This pastry house is very similar to Levain, they have dessert, bread and some hot food too… The very significant difference probably it wasn’t as pack as Levain during lunch time… or probably it was still very new when I 1st visited this pastry house last Dec.

My first visit to this place was a non-working day, we had our brunch there. As usual, non other than breakfast set and latte…

I still remember how long the barrister took to make my latte… I think she took a long time to draw the flower… well… taste wise, as long as you are not using the expired milk, latte always nice, visual wise… ermmmm… I prefer something simple and nice, but I really really like the breakfast… well, you also can say nothing can goes wrong with this kind of breakfast as long as you fried the hash brown right, fried the eggs right, bake the bread nice and cook the onion right… but to do everything right, it’s not easy, big thumb up for this.

Then the next visit was to taste the dessert in the house. We chose the pineapple strudel and a white chocolate tart or something. They were very attractive, like a French ladies, but erm… maybe we didn’t choose their specialty, I don’t think I like the taste, the pastry part of the strudel was alright, I was wondering if the chef using the fresh pineapple to make paste… and the white chocolate tart was too sweet, or probably I seldom take white chocolate, so I’m not too comfortable with the sweetness.

The boss is a very nice guy, after the dessert we were checking if there’s anything light in the menu, like fries, but there isn’t any, so, we were asking if the chef can just fry us some, then… the boss surprise us by sending us a big bowl of fried FOC!!!

pH Pastry House Kuala Lumpur is a nice and quiet place to chill, or probably a good place to spend your Sunday afternoon here with a cup of coffee and your favourite book. The boss has a very good taste in the interior and exterior design – modern minimalist.

pH Pastry House Kuala Lumpur

54 Jalan Utara, 55610, Kuala Lumpur
012-342-5464

Plan B

2012-03-21T22:51:00.001+08:00

If plan A doesn’t work, do you have a plan B? Does your boss/ parents/ partner always ask you this?

Now I’m suggesting a Plan B to you…

Love this restaurant at the first sight… not only the interior (simple, solid, practical, clean and nice), most important is their breakfast! Yes, I love this kind of big breakfast (please don’t take this to compare with McD). The breakfast is serving all day long, it has 2 eggs (prepare according to your request, sunny side up, half boiled, hard boiled, fried…), bacon, hash brown, thick bread slice, sautéed mushroom, sautéed baby tomatoes served with a glass of orange juice and your choice of coffee from the menu.

I'’ve visited this restaurant 3 times in 2 months I guess, then I think I should stop before I get bored about the breakfast. But only had their breakfast twice, then the 3rd time I had spaghetti and sandwich… opps, forgot to take picture… rate of yummylicious is guaranteed.

Then lately after I had visited one of my high school teachers who was admitted to the Pantai Bangsar Hospital, [ding] 1st plan came out from my mind for lunch was Plan B. I knew I should not take up the responsibility to order or later we will end up eating breakfast again… I always have difficulties in choosing options or trying something different. My friend did a very good job (or probably all food in the menu are just very nice), she ordered a mushroom soup, a chicken and bacon burger and a lamb meat ball spaghetti.

Last but not least… “somebody” told me that their carrot cake is one of his favourite, I tried… yup, heavenly good…

Plan B
Gr Floor, Bangsar Village I.

Testing Testing

2012-03-20T21:27:00.001+08:00

Test test test... Just downloaded this apps... Am trying to see what I can or can't do to it!

Attach a siasui look after just a pint of Leffe... Like it's cherry after taste...

Bagan Sg. Tengorak/ Bagan Sg. Burung

2012-03-19T21:32:00.000+08:00

北上东去的参加婚宴、圣诞、新年、农历新年、公司年初的各样会议、还有一些有的没的的吃喝玩乐。。。还以为时间不够用我没资格说，还是说我的心太野没让自己休息安定下来的意思？还是换个说法，我就是一个字 – 懒

好了。。。这一切都该尘归尘，土归土了，该让心定下来，不属于我的，甭想，想自己能够掌握的就好了！就像这个，照片整理好就差文字的这篇博文，从去年12月12日就一直乖乖的呆在草稿箱内，若不是这星期报纸有报道到这个地方，我这该死没良心又善忘的人什么时候才会乖乖的把文字填上。

Bagan Sg. Tengorak

Tengorak means skull, those time during the occupation of Japan, the army used to kill the captive on the beach there, and later when the Malay found skull and till now they name this place Bagan Tengorak. Of course now no more skull, Bagan Tengorak is now a peaceful fisherman village and is well known by the delicious seafood there.

We were actually going to my friend’s (Perlyn) hometown (we all used to work in the same company, I left but they are still colleagues), as we were using the old road (not highway), we stopped by Bagan Sg. Tengorak for lunch. This is my first time eating at this one and only seafood restaurant in the village, we were already talking about the restaurant and the lady boss in the car, they said, the boss has her own way of running business, you must be able to wait patiently, you shouldn’t call her to take order unless she walked to your table, cannot add or cut any food that you’ve ordered, cannot rush her because you have been waiting very long for the food to be readied and served…

When we were there, all tables are occupied, we waited for about 30 minutes to get a table, then another 30 minutes or longer for her to walk to our table to take order, another 30 minutes of waiting for the food to be served… The food… fantastic! So good until non of us remember to take pictures, we just eagerly gorge in everything presented on the table… I think the food is worth the waiting… but of course this is very subjective. Actually while waiting, you actually can walk around the village, if you are lucky, (I’m lucky that day), you will be able to see the Egrets searching for food by the beach.

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Bagan Sg. Burung

It’s kind of fun to experience “going back to hometown”, everybody seems friendlier, simpler, happier… they have stronger bonding with the family members too, taking my friend, Perlyn for an example, her family knew that we will be visiting, all family even those who have married or moved to another places, young or old, they all came back to throw a party for us.

Guess what? Jelly fish, round-disc-shape are the “umbrella” and in the barrel are the tentacles… well, kind of gross until you eat the fresh one, taste so good that you will force yourself to forget about these.

Photo time!

Dinner time!

Homemade rojak (even the sauce) Teowchew stewed duck

All sort of seafood, you name it, they have it. Can either cook them in steamboat or bbq pit. Look at the portion?

We were so full that we can’t take in the giant crabs anymore… so, Perlyn’s brother brought it to the nearby coffee shop, asked them to cook with beehoon for us – that’s our seafood breakfast!!! Yummy!!!

After breakfast, Perlyn brought us to visit her relative’s salted fish “production house”

Old man knitting the fishing net

Next we were brought to another relative’s fish ball “production house”, although they do things on the floor, but it is very hygienic area. Of course we got the chance to buy the freshest fish ball from them too!

Photo session again!

Seafood all the way!!! Seafood lunch @ Teluk Intan

The seafood porridge was unbelievable tasty…

As we were travelling north, it will take a longer hour to go back to my hometown – KL, so, we decided to try the local famous asam laksa before departing. For me, asam laksa is not my favourite food… no comment whether this is nice or not.

Photo taking in front of the leaning clock tower marked our arrival to this town – Teluk Intan, Perak!

看一场电影有多难？

2012-02-08T22:44:00.001+08:00

这部电影有影帝影后助阵，但还是很多人说这是一部烂片子，身边10个朋友看了片子，有十几个会说不能看，因为有几个可能是还没看就听朋友说不好看，他们也跟着宣传开来。我不管，我要看，我就是喜欢看影帝影后在这么烂得故事里怎么斗技！

还未上映前就约了同事，后来同事重色，跟一个追她的男生去看了。好吧，我再找其他人看好了。

结果就一直忙忙忙，新年前突发奇想跟一个很要好的朋友想要去看，但是时间筹不上，看了另一部电影。

接下来又是拜年又是聚会忙东忙西地，等到稍微空出一点时间，和回国过年的某某约好要一起去看的，xxx，他竟然放了我鸽子。

这时其实电影接近下画，播映的时间非常有限，一些“交通繁忙”的影院都换画了。这时刚好人在外地，难得在那儿有一间影院有一场。哪知道因为反应冷淡，影院决定取消当天的播映。可以这样子吗？

外地回来后，不行，我还是很想看，但是就是不管约谁，都没能迁就到，而影片已经是最后一天上映了。心想不要紧，自己一个人也可以看电影阿！上网确定播映时间后，放工回家吃过晚餐，拖着疲惫的身体，驾驶了二十多公里的路程，来到了金字塔。刚上路的时候还下起了雨呢。走到售票柜台，告诉了售票员我要一张票，令人发指的事情就在这临门一脚发生了。他说没有办法卖我单票，因为播放的影院全都是情侣座。我看一看电脑屏幕，明明每个位子都是空的，为什么就不能卖我单票？那我也好气地说，要不然就这样，到开场的时候如果位子还是空的，就卖我单票吧！他说不行，因为系统没办法卖我单票。。。你说我气不？这分明就是歧视单身人士嘛！哪有这样的，有生意都不做吗？我并没有反对影院设置情侣座位，但是一间影院只招待买情侣座位的客人，这不是太欺（单身）人太甚吗？售票员还说：“你不满意可以上网去投诉啊！”，反了反了，这是什么情况？

看一场电影有多难。。。就这么难。

Hungry-less November

2011-12-29T14:37:00.001+08:00

Who love me the most? Of course besides parents, I do! I really know how to pamper myself… look at my lunch & dessert after lunch!

Once upon a time in November, I was craving for bak kut teh when I was in Kepong, then I came across this restaurant named 老彭绑线肉骨茶 (direct translation – old Phung tie string bak kut teh), this restaurant is this is exactly what I want. I ordered a bowl of their signature bak kut teh, the lady boss even advice me to take the small bone, I was not happy that she “underestimate” my stomach, so I ordered a bowl of yau char kuey and a bowl of rice too! ooooo… the bak kut teh was so yummy… but, the lady was true… there’s no way for me to finish the big bone, after finished everything, I was actually quite full, but as you know, lady also has 2nd stomach for dessert, so, I walked across the road to De Pastry Chef Cake & Cafe, one of my favourite cake house, ordered a slice of blueberry cake & a glass of pineapple juice (good digestive drink after a lot of meat).

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Once (or twice) upon a time in November, I need to work during weekend, at first I was a little depress but later when me & my teammate had successfully signed 2 deals with customers, I think we deserve a treat to ourselves, so, I brought her to visit this mille crepe cake house @ Kuchai Lama, which I wanted to try long time ago – Indulge Cafe (what an accurate name, indulgence indulgence indulgence!!!). We ordered a mango and a chocolate banana. Erm… comment? We prefer the Malacca one… check out my previous Malacca Trip blog entry.

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Once (or thrice) upon a time in November, my colleagues and I were craving for dessert and one of them haven’t been to Levain before, so we decided to meet up for tea! 3 of us shared a cup of Tiramisu and raspberry/ strawberry short cake… Taste wide, Tiramisu win!

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Once (or donno what’s next) upon a time in November, I was lepak-ing in a mall and saw this – Ninja Joe… I wanted to try this for a very very long time, but… when I was able to try… it gave me such a big disappointment… I thought the pork burger was similar to the Macau pork burger, just smaller in size (I can grab 1 burger in my small hand), but the meat is minced meat… not nice at all!!!

And because the portion was too small, I can even go for the tea right after. See the milo, so classic, milo drink come with another spoonful of milo powder and a piece of soda biscuit, NICE! But the otak-otak and fish stick are only so so…

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Once (…………….) upon a time in November, colleague invited me and another friend to her new house… we bought her a big bottle of Choya and bought some chips and sushi and sashimi and cheese to her for supper. We girls really know how to enjoy ourselves!!!

This version of Choya is super nice, I bet non of the girl can resist this drink… so far I only know it’s available in Jaya Jusco, no where else. Strongly recommend those who love drinking but hate the bitter after taste, or hate the burning sensation, you can try this, love at 1st sip is guarantee!

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Once (………………) upon a time in November, Garrett Popcorn opened an outlet in KLCC… yes, we are one of the crazy people queuing up to buy it!!! They said the caramel is the best… well, I’m not a big pop corn fans, but the taste is really nice and no residue or hard skin left in mouth after eating. Worth trying, although the price is few times compare to the normal popcorn in cinema counter.

Rakuzen @ Desa Parkcity

2011-12-18T22:32:00.001+08:00

After a few long-winded posts, it’s enough! Here come a simpler one.

I like Desa Parkcity, I think it’s a cool area, good security, variety of interesting shops, parks and lakes… However I seldom go there because it was a little bit far from where I stay. Thanks to my dearest friend, QiaoYi, I got a chance to dine @ Rakuzen in Desa Parkcity, and I always wanted to try Rakuzen too.

Monthly promo was Hokkaido Fair, so we ordered a Ishikari Nabe (aka salmon nabe, salmon stewed in a miso-based broth with vegetables in hot pot) (pic 3), spider maki sushi (pic 2), crab leg salad (pic 1), grilled scallop (pic 4) and baked crab leg (pic 5) with cheese… every dishes are so yummy…

This was also a birthday dinner treat to QiaoYi, I was sorry that this year I didn’t have time to bake her a cake, just bought a small one but we think that the cake has too much of cream, when I was choosing a cake, this one attracted me, because the strawberries remind me of the time when we both in Amsterdam. May those strawberries bring her lots of luck and make all her wishes come true!!!

What an “INTERSTING” island - Sibu Island

2011-12-17T16:26:00.001+08:00

I do not know from where or which media suggesting that Sibu Island is as beautiful as a germ in the middle of the sea and fun yet not as commercial as Redang, so we should be able to enjoy the exclusiveness and serenity… but we forgot the challenges before “happily ever after” in every fairy tale.

We departed around 12 noon, from map, we thought we might the slowest can reach the island in 5 hours time. So, we were taking our own sweet time, stopped over Malacca for banana leaf (luckily we did, reason will be reveal later).

Around 3.30pm, one of the reception from Sibu Island Resort called us, asking for our location and told us the last boat transfer to the island is at 4pm… what?!?! How could they missed out this important information to their guest? There’s no way for us to reach the jetty in another half an hour time, so, after ding ding dong dong discussion, they offer us chartered boat @ RM250, well, what to do? Or the payment that we made to the resort, RM, will be burnt…

We kept driving, driving, following the road sign, took wrong turning, called resort… ding ding dong dong again… we reached the jetty at 8pm!!! 8 HOURS JOURNEY!!!

3 princesses in their CHARTERED boat!!! Anna, Serrea and me

Because of all the calling, discussion and questioning, our names were immediately becoming very famous among all the staffs in the resort.

As dinner was not included in the package, we ordered a la carte – Fish & Chip (my favourite dish when I travel to beaches or island), mushroom soup and seafood pizza.

Mushroom soup and fish & chip were fine, not delicious, but good enough to compensate our tired souls and starving stomachs, but come to the pizza… tasteless… it’s absolutely a surprise how the outlook presented so differently from the taste. So, we asked for chilli flakes, but, the waiter has no idea what were we asking, and we were giving chilli powder… tasteless chilli powder… another surprise.

We were told the activity of the night was bon fire… we went there, I saw one of the staffs was playing a guitar and sing with 4-5 visitors clapping hands to show support… ahhhhhh, we were not interested.

We went in to the karaoke room, Anna & Serrea ordered a can of beer for each, we thought since there wasn’t anybody in the room, we can sing until our lungs out, but, the staffs were slotting their songs with ours… ahhhhhh, boring… end up we rather drink the wine that we brought in our room.

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Since there’s nothing much we can do in the island, we decided to sleep as much as we want, woke up just on time to take our complimentary breakfast.

tada~~~, girls can eat and drink! We were too exhausted the night before, we only manage to drink half of the bottle, so, we finished the other half during breakfast!

What can we do in the island? 1. Animal feeding. There are a lot of deer, goats and peacock.

2. People and scenery watching, shell animal bullying. I have no idea how these foreigner ended up in such an “interesting” island, there are so many other islands which have better scenery, better beaches, better service, more activities, e.g. snorkelling, diving

3. Continue drinking, reading (pretending only, sunlight is too bright for reading), camwhoring…

4. Napping & swimming

At last come to dinner time, we are trying to order simpler food and at least some dishes which are Malay specialty (the chef is a Malay), so they won’t go too wrong. We ordered a salad, satay, nasi goreng kampong and seafood spaghetti, phew~ the food is much nicer than the night before.

One of the highlight for the dinner was the live band, they were very professional and sing really good. Instead of having our wine and beer in room, we spent the night chatting & enjoying live band in the restaurant.

p/s: if you notice, we skipped the lunch, we had very heavy breakfast and had only beer, chips and ice-cream for lunch!

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Avoiding the mistake that we made on the 1st day, we checked ferry time and were trying to catch earlier boat back to the mainland, we wouldn’t want to be home late night, yet we were so sick by just thinking about spending another 8 hours of road trip in car.

Our room in the island

Beautiful island from far

The beautiful and most romantic KFC outlet that I ever see. But what bordering us was the road trip back home and petrol volume in the car tank, we worried that with the what we have in the car can’t last us to the nearest petrol station. Luckily we were able to get the staff from the island to bring us to a local convenient store which sell petrol.

Moral of the story: If you are trying to be adventurous, and planning to explore a place which non of your friend has come across, it’s best to do a thorough check up.

Water Rafting @ Gopeng (29.10.11)

2011-12-11T12:37:00.001+08:00

At first, I was a little hesitate about the trip, because I’m not an adventurous person, sports never like to befriend me and I seldom put myself in danger, therefore, no matter how much I admire people who has the courage to do bungee jump, or sky diving, I won’t! Water rafting isn’t as “dangerous” (some only think that these activities are high risk, they do not agree that they are dangerous because all of them do measure the risk and they have all sort of safety precautions to protect the participant), but still this is a game which need you to sign a consent to forego any claiming rights in times of severe injury or death, in another words, you have to be responsible for everything.

We, went in a group of 9, was separated into 3 groups, because only 4-6 people + guide can fit in a raft. Me and Heng Lee in a group, joining a Chinese couple and a Malay girl, 3 guys (Heng Lee’s friends) joining some people from a big group (if not mistaken, the group is from Coway, they are probably having their staff team building) and the remaining 4 (Shin Yen, Seok Bing, Seok Bing’s sister and brother in law) in a raft.

The water is neither calm or too rapid on that day, last rain was 2 days before our session. Yet, there’s a part whereby Seok Bing’s brother in law fell into the water and hit a rock in one of the falls. My raft was in front of them, right after that fall when we reached the calm part, I looked back the witness his fall into the water, it was so scary, because he fell and I saw his head hit the rock and disappeared in the water. Luckily he was alright and saved by a guide… no serious injury, got a little cut on one of his eyelid and bruises. phew~

Our raft has 5 participants and a guide.

(Our actual guide was holding the camera, the Malay guy in the picture is the guide leader)

Half journey break

Yeah! we managed to complete the journey successfully! Total time spent was about 4 hours.

End of the journey – floating (as shown in the picture) back to the shore.

This was my 2nd time joining this white water rafting, 1st time was years back in Kota Kinabalu (KK). I personally like this experience better than the KK one. And if you ask me whether I will do it again… this time, I will say YES!!! It’s fun.

Show Off Time!!!

2011-12-08T11:59:00.001+08:00

Show off! Show off! Show off! I don’t remember I have a lot of birthday treats before my 30s, last year I had 3, but this year I have 1, 2, 3, 4… In short, I had a whole month celebration!

1st celebration: with my cute and pretty colleagues, Anna & Serrea, @ Chili’s Grill & Bar, Mid Valley. We ordered my favourite Triple Play! Yum…

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2nd celebration: with ex-colleagues, 3 October babies birthday celebration @ a porridge steamboat house opposite Maluri Jaya Jusco, Woon Ching, my 1st superior in life made us a blueberry cheese cake too… the cake is really nice, nobody gonna believe that the cake was made using a rice cooker.

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3rd celebration: with little “brother/ son”, Jeff Wan, @ La Bodega, Pavilion. This time I got to give him a big credit, I was really surprise when he suggested this restaurant. I ordered my favourite seafood Paella. This silly boy surprised me further by asking the waiter to prepare the cake for me, they were holding the cake and sang me birthday song out loud in the restaurant… .

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4th celebration: with one of my best girl friend, QiaoYi @ Dae Jang Geum Korean Restaurant, SS14. We both ordered a soup, chicken and pork belly BBQ, of course with a lot of complimentary side dishes/ starters too. This is my best celebration of all, the food might not the best, but she do. I really appreciate that I have so many good friends, QiaoYi is one of them who can really care and take her precious time off to spend time with me (I’m actually taking some parenting time from her to be with her beloved son). Thanks girl.

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5th celebration: with another good friend of mine @ Morganfield’s, Pavilion. We have been spending more than 3 years celebrating each other birthdays together! We always like to try out new restaurant in town during our birthdays. Although both of us, most of the time live a different lives (I hardly can think of many things that we share in common), but we care for each other. I wish, even if in the future, we have a busier lives, have already had a family or partner, we still can celebrate each birthday like that.

Oh, not to miss out the food part, the portion is very big, especially the chicken, I think the chicken was overcook but nice sauce, of course no doubt, their signature dish, the sticky bones, is one of the best rib in town and I love the clam bowl too, it is to go with bread, but I love salty food, I can eat it just like that.

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6th celebration: with Avan @ a Japanese restaurant, Leisure Mall (I forgot the name of the restaurant d). Been eating everything in town already, how can I miss out Japanese? Probably like what doctor said I was too stressed or tired, or probably due to something like flu virus enter the stomach and cause infection (if I understand him correctly), or the food was not very clean, I had gastric for few days after this. I never had such serious gastric before, it’s so painful that caused me “diet” the whole next day and a day after too. However, I had a nice night out with this friend, too much to catch with him d!!!

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7th celebration: with college friends aka A33 siao za bo @ Bread Basket Bakery, Kota Kemuning. They actually already celebrated my birthday early of the month, this was just another excuse for us to meet up and gossip again. This bakery is running by one of the za bo, Joanne’s family, I always order the same old 2 no matter how much time I spend by going through the menu. Fried rice with chicken cooked with special sauce and mango lychee cake. For the rice, I requested steamed broccoli add on… look at the colour combination… so attractive!

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8th celebration: with another best girl friend, Stephanie @ Ciccio Ristorante Bar Pizzeria, Changkat Bukit Bintang. I was craving for pizza, but Steph insisted we should eat something better than Pizza Hut… lol, so after going through the Malaysia Italian Restaurant Directory booklet (I’ve no idea where and how I get this booklet), I finally picked this.

I ordered a pizza and she ordered a Caesar salad, I ordered the starter – bruschetta and she ordered a dessert – tiramisu, what a best combination and best mate we are! We were too greedy, we need to pack half of the pizza to go end of the day.

I like the salad and bruschetta, the pizza is very authentic too, but I’m a bit, erm… dislike about the taste of rocket leaves spread on the pizza. After all, this was still one of the best meal I had.

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9th celebration: a casual celebration with Chris, my predecessor in work, @ Secret Recipe, we girls always meet up for lunch and gossip, celebration was just a smoke screen for us to continue lepak… lol

Birthday Trip/ Treat! (15–17/10/11)

2011-12-05T00:19:00.001+08:00

I haven’t been to Singapore for more than 3 years…

I only made up my mind and did all bookings a day before my departure. Such an “ad hoc” trip isn’t my style right? Actually the reason was, my birthday this year fell on Sunday, I thought I will be crazily party till late so I took a day off on Monday, which is the next day, but ended both of the plans that I made with my friends have to be cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”, but I can’t be sitting at home for that weekend, so, [light bulb], I am gonna to force my good friends in Singapore to celebrate with me.

This time, I’m talking the Aeroline, love at 1st sight, I took the bus which is depart from Corus Hotel, quite close to my house and I do not need to confuse myself whether I am taking the right bus or sharing the station with other passengers who are going to different places, I like thing to be straight forward and exclusive. Another plus points are, the fares are so much cheaper than taking an aeroplane, which both transportation providing similar or in fact, Aeroline’s services are even more exclusive, as there are lesser passenger, and there are plenty of departure time for you to choose, averagely 9 trips a day, 7 days a week. Those who are close to me know I hate taking aeroplane, buses are more “steady” running on the road compare to aeroplanes flying in the sky! You know what I mean…

RM174 (inclusive of tax) for round trip, 1 meal included for each trip, mineral water is provided, each seat is equipped with TV for movies, songs, games and etc... low density, if I’m not mistaken, less than 30 passengers in a bus.

I watched 2 Chinese movies that I’ve missed in cinema, I Know a Woman’s Heart by Andy Lau and Gong Li and Detective B+ by Aaron Kwok. The road trip was absolutely a pleasant one, all I could remember was I had my lunch in the bus, driver stopped at a R&R along the highway for toilet break, custom checks @ both countries, when I finally finished those movies, I was already in Singapore!!! (approximately 5 hours travel time).

The bus stop @ Harbour Front, just next to Vivo Shopping Mall and there is a direct MRT to my hostel, Hangout @ Mt. Emily, which is in Little India, and only 4 or 5 stations away from there. Of course, 1st thing 1st, check in to hostel. One thing I like about Singapore is, comprehensive map available in each MRT station, good security, Singaporean speaks English, hence I never have to worry about locating a place, getting myself in trouble/ danger when walking on the street or finding a place or language barrier when asking for direction.

I called my friend when I arrived, so, one of them (Soo) come to meet me @ the hostel and we walked to Rochor Rd where it is famous for the soya milk and fritter as tea. Well, I will think that I can get a better one in KL/ any place in Malaysia, but I’m happy that I finally got to catch up with friend.

We continued our journey (still walking) to Bugis where later another friend (Choo) was going to join us for dinner. We passed by this famous Guanyin Temple @ Waterloo St. (四马路观音庙), and it reminded my time when I was working in Singapore, the office was just a street away and every 1st and 15th of the month in lunar calendar, I will either go office earlier to pray at the temple or I pray during my lunch time. The day when I went to Singapore was Renunciation Day of Guanyin, so, the temple was jam packed with not only the local people, but tourists too…

After we met with Choo, we had difficulty in choosing a restaurant, 1st constraint was time, I’ve got a show at 8pm at Marina Bay Sands theatre (another friend, KaWeng booked me the ticket while I was booking my bus tickets) and they were going to watch Premier League somewhere nearby too. 2nd issue was, they were trying to brought me to the best they had, and they have so many in minds end up we went to this Chef Daniel’s Kitchen, because they said their signature cod fish and braised duck were the best in town.

We were the earliest customer, but, unfortunately, both of the dishes that they wanted to order to me weren’t in their menu that day… huh? What a “lucky” day, and mind you… this was just the beginning of my “lucky trip”.

This restaurant served fine Chinese dishes, we finally picked the 4, salmon, braised pork knuckle, spring chicken leg and pork belly… Soo’s friend joined us for dinner too, 4 of us, 3 guys 1 lady, frankly speaking, the portion were too big for us, we were trying so hard to gulp in everything, I think it wasn’t so bad if we had more time to taste the food. Moral of the story, don’t be too greedy and should take time as an important consideration when come to fine dining.

After finished the dinner, I was in trouble, 1st, Marina Bay Sands was quite a distance away, 2nd, it was rush hour, 3rd, I hadn’t change to a proper attire to the show (I was still in my shorts, polo T and sport shoes), 4th, I’ve got only 30 minutes to be @ the theatre, so, if I go back to change, I might not be able to go in until Act II, if I didn’t change, I doubt they allow me to go in. At last, I was few minutes late, but the show haven’t started too, and they allow me to go in with my shorts & polo. Woohoo!!!

The show is awesome, awesome… flawless, the actors interacts with audiences too, so you see sometimes elephants walked between the audience seats, birds flying everywhere, they even add in local language in the lyrics and all of them have great voices and expression and acting. No regret spending the money for the show.

Before sending me back to my hostel, we all met again @ Geylang for… dim sum supper, not women.

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I slept until I woke up by my biological clock, had my breakfast which was provided by the hostel, online checking my mail and fb updates with computer and internet provided by the hostel in the common and activities room. By then, actually both of my “tour guides” (Soo and Choo) had already finished they routine exercise, and we arranged to meet up for lunch before the tour to attractions.

I was craving for Thai food… so here we go for my 1st birthday lunch treat!

1st attraction in the itinerary - Esplanade. They asked me if I ever been to the “Durians” (outlook of Esplanade is like durians), they were surprised when I said no. Last time I was there to work, I didn’t travel much around the city.

The art displays in the hall.

We went up to the rooftop and saw some youngster hanging out there… Well better than they spend time in front of computer or loitering in some inappropriate places or doing some unhealthy activities.

wow… I’m really a tourist! with Singapore Eye at the back

2nd attraction – Merlion. Yes, sorry to say, I never been to Merlion before too!

The medium and small one, there’s another big one in Sentosa, where we will be going later.

Left pic: Captain Explorer – this unique transportation can swim on the water and run on the road, it brings tourists around to see the city, ticket isn’t cheap though.

Right pic: The city is beautify by creative arts, I especially like this wall which has a lot of faces making into a few beautiful paintings.

3rd attraction: Marina Bay Sands. My very competent tour guides even brought me to cross the Double Helix Bridge from Esplanade to Marina Bay Sands. Actually this bridge and painting that I mention above remind me of Melbourne, when I was there a year before, I saw the similar designs.

Marina Bay Sands, the 6-star hotel + casino + shopping mall, which has special exterior design, the local said, the ship which looks like a blue whale connecting the 3 towers has no tail, means, when people gamble in the casino, the whale only take in money with no “excretion”. LOL. There is actually a Sky Park and swimming pool, tourists got to pay, if I’m not mistaken SGD20 just to go up to enjoy the view from top. Of course, it’s not a must-do activity, I rather save the money for food.

For me, I like the lotus shape building sitting next to the towers, it’s actually an Art Science Museum which has not open yet.

Since it’s my birthday, my tour guides were asking me to try my luck in the casino. I’m a tourist, I don’t have to pay to go in but they are PR, they need to pay an entrance fees of SGD100. So, I went in alone. At first, I wanted to place a bet, my budget is SGD50, mean if I lose, the most, SGD50, if I win, whatever the amount I win from the 50, I will take and go, the min bet in the casino is SGD25 per game, but all of the table with this min bet were all full, left those table with min bet of SGD50 and above available, but… lol I was too timid, and stingy too, I don’t dare to take out the money to bet… so, after few round of observation (observing how other people playing and appreciate the beautiful interior design in the casino), I decided to keep the money for my shopping of wedding gift to my god-sis who is getting married this Christmas. Phew~

5 attraction – VivoCity

Look at both of the displays, aren’t they very similar? Left: in Vivo City, right: in Shanghai (I was there in Aug). Coincident? Copying? or actually both was created by the same artist?

We just stopped by Vivo City to have our early dinner before heading to Sentosa Island. They introduced this authentic China cuisine which the food is really very unique and nice. (Side track a little, when I came back from Singapore, I saw new outlet of Putien is opening up in One Utama Shopping Mall soon!!! Yeah!!!).

Sweet & sour century egg (糖醋皮蛋)

Braised pig intestine (九转小肠) Signature Putien Lor Mee (莆田卤面)

We also ordered a vege and a crab roe with bean curd (forgot to take picture of the bean curd). Putien was celebrating their 11 anniversary too, so, we received this gift of appreciate when we settled the bill.

5th attraction – Sentosa & Universal Studio. There are 2 ways to travel to the island, by train or pedestrian bridge. We decided to take train in and walking out afterward. I was lucky at first, I’ve “earned” a 2-dollar note in front of the globe, then we found out that that day has no firework and Crane Show due to maintenance or something… I can’t believe to do their maintenance on a Sunday?!

Happy Birthday to the Best!!! Yes, I’ve made it!!! Thanks to my dad and my mom… bla bla bla

Came to the Casino, ok, was still thinking should I give it a try! I’m no a frequent gambler, although the min bet in this Casino is lower, if I’m not mistaken only SGD10 per game, but… haih~~~ I rather spend it somewhere, I don’t think I have luck in gamble. To reward my “coolness”, I bought myself a Hard Rock T-shirt!

I love the statues, Adam & Eve, did you notice there’s a small red apple between their legs? They are very cute!

While walking back to Harbour Front (VivoCity), we stopped by a wine house for drink… non of us is a wine drinker, we didn’t know which is good and which is not, decision was made by the manager, he recommended this Spanish wine, he said this wine which was made in 2006 is ready to taste now. He mentioned something like this wine was stored in barrel for 3 years and 2 years in bottle, so, it is in its best state to taste now, he assured that I’ll love it too… Nice? Nice gua… hehe, I am not a good wine taster.

Of course I can’t be letting the guys to pay the bills for the whole day, I insisted to get the bill.

What a memorable birthday! Thanks guys… Thanks to Choo’s girlfriend too for allowing her boyfriend to accompany me the whole day.

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I must also blog about the hostel that I stayed too. I like staying in hostel when I’m travelling alone, more cost saving. This time I stayed in Hangout, Mt. Emily, it is located in a very strategic location, it’s actually between 2 MRT stations, Little India & Dhoby Ghaut, walking distance to some pubs and restaurants too, I can even walked to Bugis Shopping Mall from there. I like about the room too, very clean and tidy, en suite, modern design, comfortable bed and equipped with locker too.

My bed and breakfast, only SGD40/ bed/ night.

The breakfast place

The lobby and check in counter

Laundry room, got to pay for doing the laundry but it’s free to use to iron.

Recreation room has a cozy corner to watch TV and has a pool table next to it as well.

Coffee and tea are free flow, has hot water supply and microwave oven too.

Computer and internet connection/ Wifi are compliment services in the hostel too.

The rooftop, although there isn’t any swimming pool, but it has this little shower corner, sun-bathing beds, tables and chairs for you to hangout.

The entrance and outlook of the hostel.

P/s: I lost my watch in the hostel, I was too careless. I took off my watch in the bathroom instead of locker, then I couldn’t find it again the next morning.

它给的。。。

2011-12-01T00:14:00.001+08:00

1990 - 1997

喜，它让我得到了一些骄傲的掌声，当我的手指在它的黑白键上跳动的时候；

怒，它让我牺牲了一些玩乐的时间，当每晚都得在它的黑白键上练习的时候；

2011

哀，它让我感受到一种强烈的不舍；当我盖上它的黑白键强忍着眼泪的时候；

乐，它让我得到了一种无奈的解脱，当我不必再对这黑白键感到愧疚的时候。

愧疚来自于对它多年来的冷落，解脱来自于我为它找到了比我更需要、更懂得珍惜它的新主人，

皆因我把它捐赠了给一位住在孤儿院的小女孩。。。

100 Years Old Restaurant

2011-11-30T21:35:00.000+08:00

I always laugh at old people who like to think back of their lives. A bit meaningless because those were the pass, I used to think we should live our lives now, but I think I can understand why they are doing so as I’m moving closer to that category. We laugh out loud when we were talking about how silly we were during school time, we sighed when we notice the generation gap is getting wider when we were talking with youngster. Lately there’s a very hit movie – You are the apple of my eye, I think the success story of the movie is it can bring back sweet (bitter and sour too) memory and remind us all the silly things that we did before (although I’m a bit disappointed when I came out from cinema, because I feel nothing, I have no resonance at all), so, the movie is worth watching if you are late 20s and above.

Back to the topic – as I’m approaching age of “always remembering of old times”, lately for unknown reason (not totally unknown, part of the reason is due to I see some people/ the government have no sense of reservation, they are trying to bring down historical building along Jln Sultan, and Pudu Jail was demolished early of the year), I need to show my tiny little supports to some old restaurants in town. So far I only been to these 2 – Yut Kee Restaurant, established since 1928 and Coliseum Cafe, established since 1921.

Yuk Kee Restaurant

Old fan, old radio, old style French toast with homemade Kaya jam

Swiss roll is Yuk Kee all time best seller

Full house even on a weekday tea time, there are variety races of diner in the restaurant.

P/S: this restaurant also famous for their Hainanese chicken chop and Hainanese coffee too.

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Coliseum Cafe

Used to be one of the finest dining in town years back…

Such a classic interior, but I think they should do some touch up to make the restaurant brighter and more presentable.

This cafe is famous for their stick and chop. The side dish has blended spinach which I never try before. Frankly speaking, this chop was too salty and I don’t quite like the way of preparation (the chicken was too dry and hard) and presentation.

Coliseum Cafe & Hotel, 98-100 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, 50100 Kuala Lumpur, Tel:03-26926270

Sad thing is, sometimes good thing doesn’t last, it’s either the young generation has no interest in running the business or the old generation cannot accept new idea, they do not allow the young generation to innovate the business operations, and gradually the business was eliminating by time…

Malacca Day Trip (25.09.11)

2011-11-29T17:36:00.001+08:00

I couldn’t remember how many Malacca day trips have I made throughout my life, it’s uncountable already, but I really love this place, and each time it gives me a whole new experience. This trip was made as a farewell trip to Anna, Malacca is also her hometown, so, she brought us around, visited Malacca in a “local” way.

We departed after breakfast @ Kota Damansara and reached our first destination – Huang Chang Chicken Rice Restaurant for lunch about 11.45am, look at the queue, we were so lucky because Anna’s sister was there earlier than us and she helped us to reserve a table, so, we didn’t waited very long.

Usually we, tourists only go to (know) the chicken rice ball in town, this is not in town, it’s hidden in housing area. This is the local people favourite restaurant for Hainan chicken. The chicken is very juicy, tender and smooth, the rice ball is very solid and taste nicer. We kept reminded ourselves not to over eat, in fact we should only taste it, as we will not be only taking 3 meals a day, but we couldn’t help, we just want to stuff all the chickens in.

Huang Chang Chicken Rice Restaurant:

BB 376, Taman Melaka Baru, Batu Berendam, Melaka, 75350, Tel: 06-317 0299

Right after this heavy lunch, at 1pm, we continued our journey to Tong Lok Kopitiam (near Sam Poh Well/ Sultan Well @ Bukit Cina) for our 2nd lunch - Char Kuey Teow, of course this time we are smart, we controlled by only order 1 plate for sharing… the uniqueness of this Char Kuey Teow is to eat with sweet sauce, for me, erm… I still prefer the Penang style.

We girls always say we want to go on diet, diet, diet but we fail each time when we were seduce by food… After 2 lunches, it’s exercise time! Girl best exercise – SHOPPING!!

We didn’t shop long, we shopped until 2.30pm and we reached this restaurant – Jonker 88 for their famous cendol with gula melaka syrup. You should know lady always has 2nd stomach for dessert.

When we were walking out from the restaurant @ 2.30pm, we saw a lot of people eating Pai Tee, Pai Tee is just a starter, it didn’t consider a real meal, so, we packed one and “picnic” @ Jonker Walk World Heritage Park.

We are not the only group “picnicking” @ the park!

While walking along Jonker Street, we also had a stick of fried potato twister too… (no picture because we were all busy eating).

Yeah, yeah, yeah!!! Finally we were here @ Nadeje Cafe!! It was so crowded when we were there, we waited until almost 5pm to get a table. What so special about this cafe? It serves Mille Crepe Cakes!!! Variety of them!!!

We picked 2 – Mille Crepe Malacca & Mille Crepe Berry-Berry Strawberry… yummy

Nadeje, G-23 & 25, Jln PM4, Plaza Mahkota, 75000 Melaka, Tel: 06 2838750

When we finished the cake, it’s actually almost time for dinner… but we were very very very full… so, we decided to pay a visit to our Malacca colleague, Sherry @ her husband wedding planner office. She strongly and highly recommend the red wine and the Choya that she found. I must say, she really has a very good taste, I usually can’t take a lot of wine and liquor, but I love these 2. So, girl 2nd best exercise to burn calorie – GOSSIP!!!

We were too happy gossiping and drinking until we forgot about our dinner! Since we didn’t stay a night in Malacca, we must made a move to dinner and shall depart home before too late.

For dinner, we opted for Nyonya food. So, Sherry brought us to Amy Heritage Nyonya Cuisine. Probably because we were late, 9.30pm, there were actually not a lot of people in the restaurant, we let Sherry and Anna took charge of ordering because they knew the best for us.

I didn’t actually take down the name of each dishes, but they are fish ball soup with fried fish stomach, fried fish with sambal, steamed lady finger with special chilli sauce and stewed chicken with potato and mushroom. Very simple yet very authentic.

Amy Heritage Nyonya Cuisine: 75, Jalan Melaka Raya 24, Taman Melaka Raya. Tel: 06-286 8819.

We should have stay there actually, because it’s a bit tiring for us to travel back to KL after the late dinner and reach quite late at night, when I was driving home, I was stopped by a police @ a speed trap road block too, but he was kind enough to let me go because he knows actually I was driving home, single lady driving home alone at that hour is a bit dangerous.

Gua Gua Gua Gua

2011-11-22T00:29:00.001+08:00

First of all, I got to say something about my horoscope & personality: come to traveling, Libra tends to slow down and take an extra day to relax or to enjoy the smaller details of a new city. So, please don’t rush a Libra… and I might be a little adventurous (always curious about new thing, like to explore), but not strenuous exercise, to be specific, climbing…

After Mount KK climbing trip, I once said I will never ever climb a mountain again… so, I think this trip was a real mistake for me. At first a group of close friends of me were planning to visit to Mulu National Park, I thought it was just a sort of “back to the nature” or “appreciate to the mother earth” kind of trip, until somebody that we invited to the group insist we should visit to the Pinnacles. My understand to the “pinnacle” is limited, I thought it’s just a very nice scenery and “wonder of nature” until…

The trip wasn’t any ordinary cuti-cuti Malaysia trip, not only have to book very advance, more than 6 months in advance and it’s not very economical too, because of transport and accommodation limitation in the national park, which I think this is fine because this is a very effective way to conserve and protect mother nature.

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Day 1

When we arrived @ Miri Airport, we got to take the Fokker aircraft to Mulu Airport.

The fly & the flight

Our ground transport – rusted van Old friendsss

Left: Check point & information centre, right: 3km plank walk to the caves

1st Cave: Lang Cave

this place is famous for all type of living stalactite & stalagmite, vertical, horizontal (unknown reason). Important note: we are not suppose to touch them, because once touch, the stalactite or stalagmite will die (not grow anymore). If I’m not mistaken, I think the guide told us 10 years it only grow 3cm. Imagine how many years to take to become so big and tall as shown in following pictures.

From left: The famous giant jelly fish stalactite, neither stalactite or stalagmite, it’s spider wide formed by a type of insect to catch it prey, 18sx formation

2nd Cave: Deer Cave

Largest cave passage in the world. Full of bat shit too!!! Why it was named deer cave is because last time there used to have a lot of deer there, bat shit goes to the river and give mineral to the deer. But now there is no more deer because of aggressive hunting activity years back.

The most unique features to see in the cave are Garden of Eden and Abraham Lincoln’s face. For more information, click this: http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/np/mulupic/deerlang.htm

Bat Exodus

Very spectacular show where all the bats in the cave emerging out during dusk hour (around 6 or 7pm), not flying out one by one, is by group forming black cloud in the sky, million of bat in the cloud!!!

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Day 2

We stayed in Park HQ the day before, very simple chalet with minimal facilities. This day, we need to take longboat to visit to a few places before going in to Camp 5.

Penan Settlement @ Batu Bungan

Used to be the long house for the Penan ppl, but was burnt down while one day a man came back and accidentally spilt the burning lamp. River is their life, early in the morning they wash their face and shower in the river, wash clothes in the river… Penan used to be nomadic ppl, but the government help them to settle in a place, teach them to plant, managing livestock and poultry, be more civilize (most important is, don’t burn the forest).

not in raining season, so, the water is very shallow. So, sometimes we need to get down to push the boat…

3rd Cave: Wind Cave

Special features about this cave are, there’s an area where you can feel the wind blowing toward you and the air is really cool, like a natural air-conditioner and there’s a place called King Chamber because the stalactite and stalagmite or pillar formations in this chamber are like the king’s sceptre.

For more info: http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/np/nature/windcave.htm

Did you see anything in the picture in the middle?

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4th Cave: Clearwater Cave

As suggested by the name, the water is superbly cool and clear. I hope after washing my sweaty face with the water, I can get 5 years younger.

To get to the cave, we got to climb at least 200 steps of staircase up and down.

Left: The cave has a lot of mono leaf plants attached on the wall. Right: Saint Mary praying statue?!

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Camp 5

Longboat then sent us to Kuala Litut, then we got to walk 8km to Camp 5. 8km isn’t a short distance, mind you, to increase the lever of toughness, each of us were carrying about 10kg of backpack and we were suppose to finish the 8km within 4 hours, this is not cool at all!!!!!!

Reward after 8km of walk – shower in ice-cool Melinau river next to Camp 5 and seeing a beautiful sunset projection on Benarat cliff

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Day 3

Pinnacle

After 2 full days of non-stop “exercise”, I was exhausted, really… this day, we actually need to climb up to the Pinnacle, which a lot of professional climbers commented that this is much tougher than climbing the Mount KK… gosh, climbing Mount KK was already my limit, what now?! Of course, I knew I couldn’t make it to the top, and God asked me not to too, the night before was raining heavily and rain only stop after 7am, which is quite late already. The guide told us, we can still try, and he will evaluate our stamina and fitness and speed, because the guide said if we could make it to the top, we should allow another 8 hours climbing time back to the ground, or by 11am, we should reach the top. Actually it’s just about 3km, total journey, but you know, we took about 2 hours to the mini pinnacle, which is only 900m from starting point. There’s quite impossible for all of us to reach to the peak, no way. So, some of my group members already planning to come back the next time, however, I was already very proud of myself for being able to make it to the mini one.

Advice to climbing mania or whom who are interested to test your fitness, buy those cheap rubber shoes (RM7-RM9 per pair), they are proven and tested to be better than N*ke, Add*das…

Besides than leeches, beautiful wild mushroom all around the places…

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Day 4

Back to Miri

ahhhhhhh… 8km in, of course it’s turn to do another 8km fast walking out… we were told we need to catch our boat at 9am, so, we need to walk even faster this time, 2 hours to complete the 8km… I was walk “flying” too fast and I twisted my left shoulder when coming down from a suspension bridge.

Look at the room that we stayed, yes, no door, partial covered only, I was sleeping on the mattress where the blue bag sitting in the picture. Cool right?!

Our boat was late, the travel agency said it was due to some technical problems, so, we didn’t have time to eat our lunch and clean ourselves to catch the flight back to Miri, the longboat dropped us straight at Mulu Airport, where our the other half of the luggage was already there, after all the hassles, we finally boarded and back to civilization!

Group photo with our guide (the guy squatting in front), friends that we met in Camp 5 – Pakistanis couple (3rd from left and 1st from right, last row) and 3 Spanish (2nd from left, 2nd from right, last row and the girl @ 2nd from left middle row). The 3 Spanish made it to the top!!!

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Day 5

5th Cave: Niah Cave

In Niah Cave, the researcher found it to be the oldest recorded human settlement in east Malaysia. This cave is also well known for the birds' nest (Swiftlet) industry.

Gua Gua Gua Gua Gua… Gua again (Gua is Malay word to cave).

2 minutes boat ride from check counter to the plank walk to the cave… why not building a bridge, want to give a job opportunity to the local… (lame or good excuse?).

I read the info, there’s actually a harvest season for bird nest to protect the swiftlet population and the balance of the ecosystem… If the local really follow the system/ rules being set, I’ll be very proud of them. The rest of the time, the aboriginal will collect bat shit to sell to palm oil plantation, look at the big bags, they are full of SHIT!!!! The aboriginal sell to a middle man and the middle man sell to the plantation, so, I guess the aboriginal might not earning what they deserved to.

The aboriginal is plucking bird nest. One of the high risk occupation in the world I guess, no objection about it.

Beautiful rocks

Postcard always project this picture when come to this cave introduction.

OK… enough is enough… I don’t think I will go to any cave in my another 10 years… Burst my quota visiting to so many Gua at a time already.

HangZhou International Youth Hostel

2011-11-13T22:45:00.001+08:00

Since last year, year 2010, I travelled to Melbourne alone and stayed in a youth hostel, every time when I Google and do some research about accommodation to places that I’ll be going, I will first search “xxx youth hostel”. So, this time is HangZhou. Because I’m travelling with a friend, at the very beginning, I was browsing some hotel, but find that they are not very cheap. Then I came across this International Youth Hostel, the location is very strategic, reading comments and mostly positive, looking at the pictures and they all projected clean and safe environment.

When we reached Hangzhou, the cab driver didn’t know where was it, luckily I have the address and he managed to send us there. When I was doing the check-in, I noticed a lot of the worker there are very very young… (is it because this is youth hostel so they only hire young ppl?) The reception is very helpful, that evening was raining and one of them even helped us to carry our luggage. I know if you are too used to live in a hotel, bell boy service is all time available, but mind you, this is a youth hostel, you need to be responsible to your stuff because you are still “youth” aka young.

This Hangzhou International Youth Hostel has 2 wings, the reception and rooms, they are connected by a small alley. I like about the security, you need to have an access card to enter to each wing, modern (security) + tradition (interior & exterior design).

Our room is @ the 1st floor of “room” wing, no lift or escalator, narrow staircase a bit scary when you are taking your luggage up and down. Before all the rooms, there is this public place for you to hang & dry clothes and basins. Further in, there are laundry room, bath rooms, toilet and hot drinking water supply room, all for sharing.

Our room was the 1st room after all the public area, short ceiling, kind of small, a little bit crack on the wall, but for me I prefer this kind of setting, I don’t like big room. There is a small window on the ceiling, cover with a curtain, I think it’s for you too watch stars at night.

Left pic: You can also sit by the window, watching the koi in the pond. Right pic: it’s kitchen

Left pic: Living room for sharing too. Right pic: a balcony @ 2nd floor

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There's a cafe next to the hostel, I think they are running independently, but symbiotically. It’s kind of nice and when you were sitting in the cafe, you get confuse “am I in China, not France?”

Highly recommended if you were to go Hangzhou… West Lake is just walking distance away, you can wake up every morning and do a bit of running or tai chi there…

For hostel info, please visit this site: http://www.yhachina.com/ls.php?hostID=2&id=33