Crazy for Photography

Europe Trip - Isle of Arran

2009-12-20T11:39:00.001+08:00

Come to almost the end of my Europe trip, we went to an island in Scotland - Isle of Arran. We took the early train to the jetty (forgot the name of the station d). Then, we were told, we need to take a ferry to the island. This is not my first time going to an island nor my first time taking ferry, but the island that we went has no bikini, hot sun, beautiful beaches and the ferry that we took was so big that can I think it's more like a small size of cruise. hehe

on board, very windy & cold

policeman... so tall and muscular

The jetty

Lunch @ a small restaurant

The mother didn't want her daughter get into the water, she was bringing the daughter back to their picnic mat
the daughter was holding the seaweed

Some youngsters were camping by the sea

What a beautiful scenery
the river is crystal clear that we can see short plants at the bottom of the river

Swan

some people canoeing on the river
and we were resting by this unique tree

Traditional Dairy Ice Cream

A country house turned into restaurant

Dalmatian pig?

Can't believe that the pig can jump!

Happy time flies... we need to go back to do some packing...

We still has a day in Glasgow to do our final shopping. The whether in Glasgow was getting colder due to the rain.

Dr. Pepper... yuck...

Goodbye Glasgow... I'm not sure if I will ever visit this city again... but, this trip is really an eye-opened for me. I hope, if I still have a change to visit Europe again, my next target will be Spain, Italy and Greece...

~ End of my 1st Europe trip's report ~

Europe Trip - Edinburgh

2009-12-19T22:49:00.001+08:00

After Wailoong's convocation, we all went to Edinburgh... how can we not visiting to the capital while we were in Scotland right?

We were taking train from Glasgow... if not mistaken, the train took about 1 hour to reach Edinburgh.

While walking to the train station, saw this tank stopped in the middle of the road, there was photographer doing some shooting

Walter Scott Memorial
one of the famous landmark

Walking to the castle

Citroen car
can I named it a vintage car?

no title
just love the street...

Brave Heart - William Wallace?
have to pay to take picture with him, and the money is for some sort of donation... as per written on the board at the back

Edinburgh Castle

There were these 2 mascots, fire dragon and unicorn
we were like small kids, waiting to take picture with them

View from the castle
blue sky and sea

We didn't went in to the castle to see the 1 o'clock gun although we were on time because Qiaoyi wasn't feeling very good, and we didn't want to leave her alone waiting outside

Bought myself a con of ice-cream.... to cheer myself up!
Posing @ Royal Mile
they said, the road is a mile long, follow the road, at the end of it there is a palace for the queen... I'm not too sure about it because I didn't finished the road.

@ an entrance of a church... I like the colour, old brown walk with fire red wooden door

A small alley between souvenir shops
the stone wall are cold

Piggy statue @ a restaurant

White taxi @ Royal Mile

Street artist drawing picture with air brush
he is so cool

It's weekend, seeing this father bring his family out to the part and reading his girl a story... so warm

And a family bring their shih tzu
it's time to bring their dog to salon... the hair so messy and dirty

We were learning from the local, enjoy sun bathing in the park...
it's very relaxing... the sun is very gentle, will definitely not getting sun burn for sitting there whole afternoon

My friend said that the wall is formed by volcanic rock
means there used to have a volcano there?

McDonald for lunch
this time I'm trying the Deli burger
Deli Chicken + Bacon... yummilicious...

Then we visited Walts Disney's shop
Pinnocchio... my first cartoon character that I know when I was very very young
my dad bought the cartoon tape as present to me

The statue sitting in the middle of Walter Scott Memorial

We did a little bit of shopping in town... then caught the late afternoon train back to Glasgow for dinner.
We wanted try the Thai restaurant that was nice to our hotel and we always passed by the restaurant... frankly speaking, I think we all started to miss Malaysia...

This is the bill... the most expensive dinner that we had throughout the trip!
remember, it's in pound, not ringgit

Europe Trip - Back to Glasgow

2009-12-13T17:26:00.000+08:00

I have forgotten if I did mention one of the purpose of this trip for QiaoYi & family was to attend her brother's convocation. So, after a short pit stop @ London, it's time for us to head back to Glasgow. Will be spending the rest of our Europe trip, about 7 days in Glasgow.

We didn't do much thing in Glasgow except shop till we all dropped. Oh, talking about shopping, I was so silly, I thought I have spent all pounds that I brought in London, it's scary, because I actually have equal value of pounds and euro with me, and I only spent pounds in London, and euro in Paris and Amsterdam. I bought quite a lot in Paris and Amsterdam but yet I still have balance. But in my wallet, pounds were limited before I went back to Glasgow... I was scratching my head and scaring myself... and later I realised... yeah, I didn't brought all pounds with me, half of them were left in my big luggage which was locked in the hotel before we departed to Paris. phew~~

When we took Megabus back to Glasgow, time spent in the bus was longer than the trip it took from Glasgow to London... most probably due to bad weather. But taking this bus wasn't funny... nothing much we can do in bus but yet... it's very tiring.

1st day in Glasgow - doing nothing. When we reached Glasgow, it's already dinner time... Chihmun met us for dinner and brough us to Weaterspoon for beer and wine.

2nd day - shop! shop! shop! Night - Chihmun brought us to Princes Square for cocktail

A statue in front of a modern art museum...
yea... the con is placed in purpose. Modern art ma... you can never guess the purpose right.

Weather @ Glasgow is much colder than other cities.
And we have a "liqor supplier" - Chih Mun (also 1 of our high school friend) there, so, we have no reason to not drinking every night... hehe

@ one of a bar in a building, I have forgotten the name, that night we wanted to try cocktail and the guys asked me to choose.
I choose Pimps because I wanted to try something refreshing. When the waiter came to take order, we mention we wanted a jug of cocktail, then he suggested Sangria. Then we corrected him saying we wanted Pimps.
But when the drink arrived @ our table, it was Sangria, Chihmun insisted we shouldn't compromise and ask the waiter to change. When the waiter came, before we voiced out, he already knew he has made and mistake, but he didn't took the Sangria away from our table. We were guessing, will he give us this Sangria as compliment? But of course we didn't touch the jug before he brought us the right order.
I think he can read our mind, he asked us if we want to clear the Sangria from our table, because he can left it there for us FOC... aiyo... you should be able to guess what's the answer lo. hehe

cool!
The drummer wearing traditional kilt and doing street performance
I like guy with this kind of hairstyle
short and tidy

3rd day - Wailoong's convocation... Qiaoyi, Ken Leong and Qiaoyi's mother were invited to the ceremony... So, I'm bring Kenleong's parents to explore the city in the morning. A night before, Chihmun recommend us to go to the lighthouse, from there we can see the city from the top. A lighthouse in the middle of a city... amazing huh? usually lighthouse is built by sea shore, from least from my understanding la.

That day I had problem with my eyes... too dry or something... felt very uncomfortable and I can't put on my contact lenses too.

The Lighthouse is easily located... just that we felt a bit disappointed with it's height. It has only 6 floors. And there are art galleries, museum @ 2nd & 5th floor, if I'm not mistaken.

City view from the Lighthouse

I like this wall color

It has nothing much to see in the Lighthouse. So, we went back to the street, at least can see some street performance.
This is one of them. It is not a statue, ya, the pegeons are statues, but the man is a real man... he scared us when we passed by...

The ceremony ended in the afternoon, then we met for lunch together

My eyes problem was getting worse and caused terrible headache... so, I didn't follow the rest of them to take photograph @ Glasgow U... I went back to hotel to take a nap. Luckily my headache went off when I woke up.

Chihmun also got his new car that day. So, he has planned to take us to his apartment with his new car after dinner.
Dinner @ a spanish restaurant... I like the food there, very authentic

A group photo @ the restaurant

Chihmun's car is a two door BMW, so, we spilt into 2 groups, the parents follow his car and we took cab. Because Wailoong said he wanted to take photograph @ George Square in his new suit... hehe

@ Chihmun's apartment, he served us champagne...
we had beer and wine the 1st day, then we had cocktails the 2nd day and champagne the 3rd day... what a "drinking" trip!

Europe Trip - Back to London Again

2009-12-12T10:10:00.005+08:00

My memory is fading... so, I got to push myself to write down as much as I remember now.

After the short Amsterdam trip, we were back to London (Stansted Airport) by flight - EasyJet. The young boys sitting next to me were about in their teenage, I think. They are very excited and hyper-active in the flight but of course they are very polite as well, they said they were going to London for holiday and that is their first time taking flight. Wow, when I was about their age, I think my parents will never, never allow me to do such thing.

When we reached the airport, the immigration officer had asked us some questions, eg. where r we from? what's the itinerary? what's the relationship between all of us... feeling to be the odd one is erm... undescribable... but it's ok, they were making me feel like their family member too.

Then we took a bus to London, we wanted to go Victoria but due to some misunderstanding somewhere, the bus ended at Liverpool, luckily the station was just next to a tube station, so, at least we know how to get to Victoria. Most importantly, the bus fare was only 2 pounds per person.

When we reached Victoria Station, it was already in the afternoon, we quickly picked a restaurant and "re-fuel" our poor empty stomach. Since we didn't try any bar lunch in London the other day, we decided to try out the food at Wetherspoon. We actually didn't know that Wetherspoon has so many branches all around UK, what we know that, the food is so cheap... I ordered a lime soda, and it's only 0.25 pound. What a surprise.

All the packet sauces in Wetherspoon

I ordered a spicy tomato pasta and ordered a chicken tikka masala to Qiaoyi's mother in law and fish n chips for her father in law, we enjoyed the food so much... reason 1: cheap and nice, reason 2: hungry d.

Wetherspoon Menu

We then checked in to our pre-booked hotel - Airway Hotel, not the same one as the other day before we departed to Paris, but it is also very near and easy to access from Victoria Station. The hotel gave us rooms which are located at lower level, at least this time we do not have to carry our luggage to climb the stairs. Rooms are comfortable and clean enough for us to rest tired bodies. hehe

Without any delay, right after we left our luggage in the room, we had decided to pay a visit to Harrods... on the way walking to Harrod from tube station, there are a lot of designer's boutique, accessories shops... but, we were late... although most of them were having fantastic sales, we were unable to access because it's already after their business hour when we were there.

Luckily, we still can be able to enter to Harrods... we had dinner date with a high school friend, so, we had only limited time there. As soon as we enter the department store, we started to regret, we wished we had more time to shop because most of the brands were doing at least 30% - 70% sales... gosh... next time we should book a flight to London in summer and shop till we drop.

Me @ Harrods

Dinner appointment with the friend - YunJie @ China Town, yes, China Town again, but the restaurant that she recommend serve very authentic Chinese food, the tastiest of all we visited so far...

Group photo with YunJie, a very cool and nice young lady

Then Diong, our high school friend as well, came to meet us for a cup of coffee as well as a bid farewell to all of us.

Coffee @ Nero Cafe

:( next day will be another tiring day in bus... we were taking megabus again back to Glasgow....

Europe Trip - Amsterdam Day 2

2009-11-27T19:52:00.003+08:00

Hotel lobby & counter

Very elegant right?
The rooms are small and simple, good enough for me to rest
the only complain about the hotel is the staircase, very narrow & steep

This day is the only day we join a local tour (Excursion) throughout the trip.
We joined the trip visiting to countryside

It's a day trip, we need to go to the Diamond Factory to meet the tour guide

Spaghetti breakfast @ the train station
we were afraid we will be late to catch the tram to Diamond Factory, so, we decided to take breakfast near there

The big wooden shoe outside the Diamond Factory

The tour guide met us on time and we traveled by bus. On the way, the guide sort of explained and introduced a lot, somemore speaking in 3 languages, English, Dutch and Spanish... it was quite boring, I fell asleep until we reached Zaanse Schans an hour later.

He said, nowadays in Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans is the only place which still has the working old-fashioned windmill.

Du... those are the windmills

Nice sky, nice bridge, nice girls... hehe

1st, we were led to cheese factor
this lady showing us how Dutch make cheese

The young cheese, the darker the colour, the older the cheese

All sort of cheese, too bad, I'm not a big fan of cheese

The young cashier with traditional Dutch costume
She was new, and when Liang paid for his cheese, her hands shivered while handing the change to him, hehe so cute...

Very cute windmill

Can't have enough snapping of windmill, so classic and vintage, as if I have traveled to the past.

The owner of this windmill
see, he is wearing the traditional wooden shoes, he is very friendly, taking pictures with all of us. he was there because he need to adjust the windmill to the direction of the wind.
We were asking him, is it comfortable in the wooden shoes? he said:" not in 1 day or 1 month." means for him, he has already used to it.
he said averagely, he will need to change a new pair after 3 months, because the base will become thinner as he wear it everyday.

Am I look like a Dutch milk lady?

Yo... this sheep so scary... the head looked like skull

Next station, the tour guide brought us to wooden clog factory...

haha, we were in super big wooden shoes, yellow the the pattern are the traditional design.

The visit was quite short, as there's nothing much to see, mostly for us to buy some souvenir there only.

When we were about to leave, at the entrance there were some local children games
you know how to walk in these?

Then the tour guide brought us to a water village, i can't remember the name of the place already, but all houses are built by small small canals.

A very unique bridge
it is very steep, about 45 degree I think
instead of saying "cross" the bridge, I think it's more appropriate to us "climb" across the bridge

Some shop lots in the water village, but mostly closed, because it was Sunday.

Boats at every back door of the house
one of their frequent used transportation

Next - LUNCH
we were starving already.

We had our lunch @ Volendam - a fishing village

what's good to eat there? Fish n Chips la

After lunch, there's still plenty (actually not a lot) of time for us to walk around, I was hesitating to rent a traditional costume and take picture in one of the shop, but it was really very expensive, some more I'm the only one interested to do, so at the end, just gave up the thought, but rewarding myself a scoop of movenpick ice-cream. hehe

I think only the yellow skin always like to take pictures here and there, because I see other tourists which are white and black, they follow instruction very well. why did I say so? because we nearly miss our boat to another village.
we were too busy with photo taking, the tour guide already told us to be on board at __pm (i forgot what's the time d), so, we got to run to catch the boat.
the amazing part is, the tour guide didn't do head count one, but yet, all of us manage to be on board.

yeah, in the boat d... so crowded @ the deck which is open air, where only a few ppl sitting inside.

Liang's parents and Qiaoyi's mother are one of the few people.
yeah, they enjoy the view too...

A group photo in Amsterdam

We landed in another village, which I have no idea where was it, because the tour guide speak a few language, sometimes, just differentiate which language was he talking at the moment, so, we mostly discover the place by ourselves.

Pink poppy, very beautiful

A ball of roses, so pretty!

After this village, we thought the bus will brought us back to Amsterdam, so, all of us had fallen asleep in the bus while the tour guide kept talking talking... what a good lullaby...

Then, the bus stop, tour guide ask us to get down. What we see is a highway with no end both side, and a thin but not so tall building. we were wondering what can we see there?

Actually, we can climb up this building to see the sea level on both side of the highway
I didn't climb up because was too lazy.
but I think it's still amazing to see both side of the sea have different sea level and the highway which Liang said it was so straight until "your mom also can't recognize you", means straighter than ruler

The highway has a name, but I have forgotten
It was build to avoid floor, because the city is very low, and some places even below sea level, that's why we can see 2 different sea level on both side of the highway
the project is very amazing...

The couple & the highway

A memorial to those who had sacrificed their life in building this highway

ok, it's really a long day, and time to get back
When we reach Amsterdam, sky started drizzling, so, some of us actually planning to go back to hotel to rest but wailoong n his mom wish to do a last minute shopping, yeah, I joined them too...
but in minutes, rain stopped, so, the rest joined us!

You know, trip to Amsterdam won't be complete if you didn't visit to their sex museum, Liang and Wailoong went in before, and we don't think that those parents like this idea, so, me and Qiaoyi have decided to left those parents to the guys and we both visit to sex museum.

Frankly speaking, although the entrance ticket isn't very expensive (only 3 euro per pax), but the museum is very disappointing. It has a lot of porn pictures inside and some sculpture, that's it. Sigh... we are science students, of course we have seen all these...

In just 30 minutes, we have already seen everything and joined back the group

Silly us in silly glasses
is there any meaning behind for these glasses? why every souvenir stores are selling these?

That's the end of our Amsterdam trip... the next day we will be in London again.

Amsterdam, I'll be back...

Europe Trip - Amsterdam Day 1

2009-10-25T22:42:00.001+08:00

Has not update this blog for quite some time... let's continue with my Europe Tour diary...

After Paris, we were going to Amsterdam. The reason I choose Amsterdam is because, since young, I mean in my high school time, I was told, Amsterdam is the lowest city in the world, and, if global warming continue, this city will soon emerge in water. So, before this day happen, I always wanted to go there. Another reason is, I love tulip, but before we go, I have checked, tulip season has over, too bad...

Before leaving for Amsterdam, let's take a photo with the hotel that we stayed in Paris

Part of our luggage, some we left @ Glasgow

me @ Gare du Nord,
train station connecting London, Amsterdam, Belgium...

Train that we were taking to Amsterdam was booked from Rail Europe, if not mistaken the train is called Thalys.

Although Thalys is not as best as Eurostar (I think), but overall, the journey was still a pleasant one. The train stopped quite a number of time, for passenger to get down to various station, including couple of stations in Belgium.

Finally... finally, we touched down in Amsterdam... as I have limited information about Amsterdam, we didn't quite sure where were our hotel, and were not quite sure what are we going to do in Amsterdam, but, Amsterdam do have many ready-made day tour, so, we decided to book one for the next day, as that's the only full day we will be in Amsterdam, we couldn't afford to waste any minute :)

Our hotel is few roads from the train station, no public transportation needed, we just walked. Although all the street name are not easy to understand and remember, but the Dutch speak English very well... at least we still can ask...

We put down our luggage and that's time for lunch

My first lunch in Amsterdam - bacon burger

After lunch, we decided to walk around, Heineken factory & Hard Rock are in our list

The tram @ Amsterdam

Then we saw this shop... guess what is it?
It's burgers/ sandwishes dispensary machine!

Visited to the tourism centre to book our trip to see windmill the next day
Everything is online, actually we can also pre-book it in KL, because we already have some idea in mind, so, the process was very smooth and fast

Elmo... my favorite character in Sesame Street!

Street performer
what a strange instrument

Environmental friendly taxi
it's bicycle actually

Nice back street with graffifi

Bus stop... is the grey thing a chair for passenger?

Bicycle everywhere...
Next time, I mean if I got the chance again, will definately choose this as my transportation

Tourist bus

A lot of ppl chilling out by the canal

We too... chilled out there

Watching different boats (small, medium, big) passerby

Restaurant by the canal

Big one

Small one

This guy is good looking right?
He was browsing the old records @ this second hand shop (I think)

Not sure if this is the factory, but we were there, in a shop full of Heineken!

Camwhoring myself infront of a green mirror

Camwhoring in one of the gaming room in the shop

This wall is amazing...
It is using refrigerator concept, condense the vapor in the air and form this logo. The ice will only melt if they turn off the electricity... cool!

Agree!

Me & Liang's punya Heineken

Both of us like this pizza very much... value for money...

Wow... the strawberries are bigger than our noses

Something is on... we are not that busy body, so, we didn't go to find out what

While on the way to Hard Rock, we saw this - Public toilet for men ONLY.... in the middle of the road
guys, dare to try out?

photo with lizard...
not that daring la me, they are just cement statue

First dinner @ Amsterdam
Chinese food again

The restaurant was very nice to ladies, whoever walk out from the restaurant, ahem, ladies only, the waiter/ waitress will hand a rose to her... so sweet... at least from this gesture, I think, Amsterdam is more romantic than Paris...

After sending Qiaoyi & Liang's parents back to hotel, we, the young one, decided to explore the red-light district
A bit scary at the beginning, because I didn't know what will happen but after walking few streets in that area, it's actually quite interesting and safe... as long as you didn't do "funny" things or kacau them la.

Me @ one of the street in red light district

Me & Qiaoyi were quite tired after the visit to red light, so we decided to head back to hotel straight while the guys didn't want to miss any opportunity to get cheap beer

Heineken Extra Cold
The guys tried this, and I tried it the next day!

The beer was so cold until you see? a thin layer of ice form on top of the beer...

woo hoo... so looking forward to the next day... wind mill, here we come!

Europe Trip - Paris Day 3

2009-09-18T20:32:00.001+08:00

Final day in Paris...

Actually the hotel that we stayed has cafeteria and their breakfast was only 5 euro per person (if I'm not mistaken). From the first day we stayed in, we already decided to have the breakfast there one of the morning. So, last day already, gotta be that morning.

Very simple breakfast... all sort of bread (free flow), all sort of jams, butters, cheese, chocolate and tea and coffee
compare to the breakfast that we normally take, ie nasi lemak, noodles, dim sum... obviously, our breakfast have more choices and more interesting!

Then, we decided to go up to Eiffel Tower. Actually the night before we (at least myself) were struggling shall we go to see the beautiful Eiffel Tower with light on again? But end up, we were too exhausted, we ended up in bed instead.

Before leaving this city, we gotta at least say a proper goodbye to Eiffel Tower

The legs of Eiffel Tower
That day was very windy and thick clouds in the sky
While queuing for ticket, I enjoyed seeing the movement of clouds, they were fast!

Although the queue was very long, but in short while, we already in the ticket counter. We were thinking, shall we told the cashier we were students? Ya, we looked young in their eyes.
When we were talking to the cashier, we forgot to mention, then when she collected the money from us, we were thinking, shall we cheat? But ended up, she didn't believe us, so, mission failed. hahaha
We are just not a professional liar...

I'm quite excited about going up and yea, quite scary too although I know the lift should be very very safe.

In seconds, we were already at the waist of the tower. Wow... what a magnificent view from there... Paris is so packed and congested, all the building, houses are very crowded, and I noticed that Paris does not has a lot of tall building and does not has a lot of greenery.

From there, I was trying to locate some famous attractions that we read from books.

A building with gold roof top... anyone know what's this building?
It's actually quite far away from the tower... just that my camera has great zoom power... hehe, so proud of it.

A cruise @ Seine River

Ha, finally found this...
Arc of Triomphe

Bottom: Pont de Lena (the bridge)
Middle: Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero)
Top: I called it another part of the world... with tall buildings
anyone know where's that place?

Me & Qiaoyi before going up to the top

My ticket

There's a chamber at the top of Eiffer Tower
and there are 2 wax figures inside... one of them is Mr. Eiffel and another one is the inventor Thomas Edison
This room was used to a meeting room for Mr. Eiffel to meet some famous people.
So, I was wondering... the lift was build since that time? or they have different way to reach the top?

Champ De Mars (Field of Mars)
A large green area in the city

Seine River
A few bridges linking both side of the city

Toilet up there!
Wonder how is the whole sewage system working?

Lunch time again... we went to Lafayette again because Qiaoyi found out that the Longchamps
that she bought still has the magnetic tag attached to it, so, she needs to go back to the shop to remove the tag.

When we were there the day before, we walked pass this restaurant, selling mixed rice (zhap fan)... So, we decided to bring the parents there and we ate Subways which was opposite this shop.

Variety of dishes, looked yummy, taste... erm, can't compare with what we have in Malaysia

After eating and settling the tag, we went to one of the famous churches in Paris
- Notre Dame Cathedral
Can never miss this...

Remember the cartoon "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", the cartoon was drawn base on this church

It's Friday... and there were a "service" in the church
I'm not a Christian nor a Catholic... has no idea who are they and what were they doing

The interior of the church is beautiful

The exterior, with a lot of carvings

The statue outside the church

Chasing the pigeon

These 2 girls hugging each other and cry after coming out from the church...
why? felt touch gua...

A mother hanging out with her 2 handsome sons
see, one of them smile to me

There are a lot of ugly creatures on the wall

At the back of the church, there is a garden
A lot of big roses can be found there

The garden

Before leaving the place, we realized we haven't tried any dessert in Paris... how could that happen? So, we picked this which is just next to Notre Dame

Can't miss their Crepe
and this is Chocolate & banana crepe

I think the one that I took in Eurostar is nicer...

Creme brulee

one of the must try dessert in Paris
The burnt caramel top smell so good

Frankly speaking, I don't take strawberry product, for example, strawberry cake, strawberry ice-cream... but this strawberry ice-cream has changed my taste... it tasted so refreshing and cool!
Since then, when I came back to KL, I started trying strawberry cheesecake ice-cream and strawberry sorbet... never thought that I will like it.

A group photo in Paris
I like this photo, everybody looks so good

Love this pic too...
what a serene scenery

This day, we went back to Chinatown again... same restaurant for our dinner
Qiaoyi ordered this Vietnamese Pho Soup noodle the day before and she let use try and we think that the noodle and the soup was nice, so, this day, out of 7 of us, 4 ordered this without second thought. hehe

Have we left of any must-go attractions in Paris?
I told my friend, Paris isn't as romantic as I think, maybe I was there "alone", I mean I didn't go with my love one or what.
If there are really some places that I've missed during this trip... I think, I will be only going back after I've traveled to other countries/ cities of Europe, eg Spain, Protugal, Italy, Germany... or maybe when I have the significant other... :)

I was so looking forward to Amsterdam the next day...
stay tune... for more interesting travel dairies in Amsterdam

Europe Trip - Paris Day 2

2009-09-17T00:04:00.005+08:00

2nd Day in Paris

Just as previous days, we have plan, flexi plan... Itinerary of the day will be visiting Lourve Museum... then... ar... plan later.

Cafe everywhere...
we just picked one to try the local breakfast

Baguette with cheese and ham
simple yet delicious
the bread was not as hard as I think... cheese and ham were fresh
of course, we ordered coffee too... very aromatic, unfortunately, I'm allergy to caffeine

A group of bicycle tour passed by when we were having our breakfast

Phone booth in Paris
reminded me of a friend, I received his called when he was traveling to Paris with his family. But we didn't get in touch with each other for a very long time, wonder how is he doing now, hope that this friend of Garfield is doing well.

While we were walking to Metro station, we saw this...
Flipping through our directory, oh... this is July Column
but what is it for? Donno...
if you are interested to know more, can click on the link above

This station is very unique... easy to guess where were we right?

This station is exceptional darker... create a misterious yet classical and artistic feel

The Lourve Museum

Chill out!

Yea, we decided to go in
Trying to be "atas" abit, long time didn't go to any museum, some more this is world class art museum... although might not (definitely not) understand or really know how to appreciate.
I'm so not a Libra

Will I get sue for doing this?

Ah... I saw this before... but don't know who is the artist and name of this art

Never saw this before... but love this at first sight
feel touch... in a way

Even the ceiling, it is piece of art too

Art corridor
Getting nearer... nearer...

Erm....
A little disappointed by the size
Some friends who have been there before were surprise when I showed them this picture, they said previously, photo taking was prohibited.

This is the painting opposite Mona Lisa, I'm sure it's a very famous painting too, something related to Jesus and dinner...
and I like this better

Another painting that I like... who can tell me who painted this and what's the meaning? I really want to know

I become so small with all the "heads"

Qiaoyi likes this scrulpture

We spent the whole morning there...
I think it will be more interesting if you can find somebody who love art and know some history about the arts.
I was just loitering around... like a "blind headed fly"... hehehe

What's next? Lunch la!

headache, headache... after a few "in-communicative" experiences with waiter, we decided to try something easier... FAST FOOD!

Various coffees served in McD

Tried this special burger - CBO
C-Chicken, B-Bacon, O-Onions

A huge burger... yummy

Fueled up after lunch... we were somewhere near Lafayette
aiyo... how can we miss this shopping paradise?

You know what? Travel to Europe in Summer isn't a bad choice... most of the shop were doing great sales!

I didn't plan to buy Longchamp actually, but... they were doing up to 50% of sales...
so tempting...

At the end? I bought one and Qiaoyi bought 2! hehehe
Believe me, 50% off... plus the VAT (value added tax) claim...
please do the calculation on your own.

The only moment that we have totally forgotten about the tireness of our legs

There are a lot of designer brands in Lafayette, LV, Gucci... you name it, they have it
Before going to this trip, I was thinking, should I get myself a LV? Will it be too extravegant? Anyway, I still go through LV website, shortlisted a few item that I like, but I still couldn't decided, shall or shall not get it.

When I was in Lafayette, we did went in to the LV shop, crowded with a lot of people, especially Asian... I couldn't explain the feeling when I stepped in, it's kind of nervous, erm no, scary, nope... erm... the feeling was very complicated. Finally, courage came out of noway, I asked a lady to show me the items which I have taken down the code in my note.
She explained in a polite manner, actually we should go to look for someone who has a red scarf on their shoulder, and that person will assign a sales person to serve us. We are Chinese, quite obvious from our appearance, so, the lady with red scarf assigned a Chinese to serve us too. However, the 2 modals that I have shortlisted was out of stock, she is kind enough to help us to check through their inventory system and said the modals are still available in their flagship and she even showed us the way to get there (somewhere at Champs-Elysees).

Flagship... omg... hearing so many story about "you gotta queue up early in the morning", "they limit the number of people get in", "sales person there were not patient, you better do some research before you get in"...
Well, just try our luck! We were planning to go to Champs-Elysees too anyway.

Surprising... when we got there, we didn't see any queue.
Doors are wide open, I still got to take a deep breath before going in... it's difficult to explain how I feel at that moment.
(ok, all I have to say, I don't used to buy or even use designer brand stuff)

aha, this time we have experience, we first looked for the person with red scarf... then she assigned a Chinese sales lady to serve us. The sales lady is very very pretty and she speaks English very well. (phew... finally...)
She was trying her very best to find the modals that I'm looking. But I think there's some problem with their inventory system, she couldn't find them.

You know, when come to that stage, you are not going to leave the store empty handed. So, I asked her to show me the purse that is very popular, because I saw a lot of people are using that, but I didn't know what's that modal, I described to her and yeah, finally, she got it to show me. Holding it on hand, my undecisive character came again... should I get it?

At the end, I bought it...
The sales lady is very helpful, she wrapped the purse nicely in box, like a present... at least made me feel better, I can tell myself, it's a present for my birthday this year! (although my birthday still has months to go)
While she walked me down to get my "present", she showed us how to do the VAT claim.
I was curious how could she speak English so well, so she explained a little bit about her background, she studied in UK before, then she is planning to further her studies in China, planning to take marketing... wow... this girl is so lovely... if I were a guy, will definitely fall to her already.

When we walked out, then we saw a lot of people crowded at the Cinema opposite... because Jonny Depp was there to promote his new movie - Public Enermy...
I love Jonny Depp too, but really, it was too crowded, can't squeeze myself in the crowd.

All the way down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, there stand the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of Charles de Gaulle - the famous "roundabout" in the world... haha
Charles de Gaulle is the meeting point (wikipedia used this phrase) of 12 straight avenues. Ken's father teased me, he said if I can go across all the avenues, I will be able to meet my prince charming... hahaha, of course I didn't do that... it's too dangerous
I will say, anybody who can drive skillfully in this roundabout, he/ she will have no problem to drive around the world. hehe

One of the avenues

Open Tour bus
25 Euro a trip...

Exhausted... exhausted...
I brought wrong pair of shoes to the trip... and that shoes give me a lot of pain
Moral of the story: never never bring new shoes to travel

Dinner, we had it at China Town @ Belleville.
When we reached there, some of the restaurant already closed, then instead of called it Chinatown, I think Vietnamtown suit better - a lot of Vietnamese restaurant there.

We picked one, the restaurant served both Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine.

Me and my char siew and roasted duck rice
Trying hard to squeeze a glimmer of smile on my tired face :)

Time to get good rest...
Must fully charging myself to enjoy the last day in Paris

Europe Trip - Paris Day 1

2009-09-12T21:06:00.002+08:00

Back to my Europe trip dairy...

This day, we will be taking 9.00 am Eurostar to Paris from London - St. Pancras station. So, we couldn't enjoy the English breakfast in hotel. When we were in the station, Qiaoyi went to the E-ticket counter to print our pre-booked tickets, then we found this shop for breakfast - Crepe Affairs.

The girl making our crepes

I think they never expected that their crepe can be selling this fast... we altogether ordered 7 but they had enough material for only 6, then we weren't informed, I kept waiting for my crepe then we heard the annoucement that we need to check in. So, I told her just dump whatever they had, then I brought up to the train to eat.

Yeah, boarding d...

Enjoying my crepe... very delicious...

After breakfast... what can I do? Sleep lo... the train is very smooth and fast, when I'm sitting in, I can't feel it was moving until the train enter the tunnel, because I can feel my ears block.

How amazing, in just 2 hours, we already in PARIS!!!

Queing up for Paris Visite ticket - ticket valid for bus, coach, metro and etc.
Ticket that we bought was 3-day pass for Zones 1-3.
The tickets are very tiny... careless people like me, I got to use and keep it with extra care.

Then we took metro to our pre-booked hotel - Grand Hotel Amelot, crossing our fingers that this hotel will have a life (we were carrying our luggage up and down 4 floors in London).

The metro was very very pack... and the underground in Paris is even complicated than London. When we took the interchange at Republique, the rest had boarded to the train except me. haha... the problem is, I don't know which station to get down and which train to take? hhaah
Thanks to cellphone, in a minute, Qiao Yi called, directed me to get down at St. Sebastien Froissart station.

If you ask me whether I was scared at the moment, not at all... hehe

Grand Hotel Amelot is just a street away from the station, location wise is very strategic. Furthermore, along the street, there are bistro, restaurants, convenient shop... I like that place...

We were told (actually don't know told by who), language is a barrier travelling in France. When we arrived, I think that's true.

1st incident: In the hotel
We communicated with the PIC with English... I think he can understand, just that we replied us with Franch, either he doensn't want or doens't know how to speak English. Check in was easy, but we had problem to fix the air-con in our room.

It was funny, we were told the room that we stayed was air-conditioned, but we couldn't find where was the remote. Then, I found a stand-alone machine in the cupboard, I never seen this before but we believed it's an air-con. When turned it on, yes, got cool air coming out, but at the same time, hot air released at the back of the machine too, so, it's actually getting warmer in the room rather than getting cooler. Then we asked the house-keeping lady... thanks god, she knows how to speak English. She told us, we got to connect the "hot air releasing hole" to the wall, but due to the hotel has just undergone renovation, the hole on the wall was block.

Then we asked the reception guy for a room exchange. But he insisted to fix the wall. He was trying very hard, believe me, real hard, then suddenly, he came to us and shouted a few lines... as if we know Franch... we think, he either scolding us for finding out the problem, or scolding the contrator who has sealed the hole. To make us feel better, I take the later.

The air-con is real classic, not only has to connect with tube to the wall, there's water collector in the machine too, when the water is full, the machine will stop, then we got to drain the water in order to make the machine work again... normally, I got to wake up in the middle of the night to drain the water. What an experience!

Time for lunch...
(at 3pm something Paris time)

Incident 2: in the restaurant

Restaurant which still served lunch in late afternoon.
We asked few restaurant, some didn't have English menu, some waiters/ waitresses don't know how to explain in English and finally, we found this, and the waitresses claimed that she speaks little bit of English.

We were being cheated la... when we entered, the menu all in Franch, then she has no idea how to introduce the food for us too.
No choice, has to base on our luck d. We ordered a salad, a duck and fish dish as main course for sharing. It's not easy, we got to repeat and repeat mention "DUCK... DUCK... DUCK", "FISH... FISH... FISH"

The duck dish
Luckily, everything turned out to be very nice....

The fish dish

The salad

After lunch, we shoped for drinking water
wow, the vegetable in the convinient shop are all so fresh and huge.
5 tomotoes = size of my face

Statue of Liberty?!
I didn't know there's one in Paris too... although I knew the one in US is a present from France
But I think this statue is a little bit shorter and "fatter" then the one in US right?
Just merely what I think, because I never seen the one in US.

The purpose of the trip!!

I called them best of the best... or else they won't be asked to protect the Eiffel Tower right? hehe

You just can't not falling in love with it...

Police officers in shorts
Weather was too hot...

Right under Eiffel Tower

After lots of shooting... shooting photo of Eiffel Tower, it's time for dinner...
well, sky still very blue... because it's summer time, day was longer

Crossing River Seine by walking across Pont de Lena (the bridge)
Those are restaurant cruises

The reach the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero)
no idea what's that, but it's a good place to see Eiffel Tower

Walked few streets down, we came to this Chinese restaurant
Ya, we were here for dinner
The owner is a Paris-born Chinese, but he never forget about his root, he said his father was from China, migrated to Paris and open this restaurant. Although he grow up and study in France, but he speak very fluent Chinese, because they speak Mandarin in the family.
Food vice... erm, so so only, not as authentic as the Mandarin that they speak

Golden statues @ Palais de Chaillot & Eiffel Tower

Program of the night - watching Eiffel Tower light on
We found a nice place, sitting on the grass, waiting patiently for the moment
The only thing that we can do was - posed and took photos with beautiful Eiffel

Around 10pm...

Eiffel shined like a diamond
If the sky was darker, the effect will be more significant and beautiful
Yet, we already felt touched seeing that moment
oh God, where's my lover? please let him come out from the jungle

Gradually, it turned gold

Wailoong said Eiffel Tower will shine like a diamond again... however, we didn't know when. Instead of waiting, Qiaoyi and I took a ride on the Mary-Go-Round there. Another kind of romantic, seeing Eiffel Tower and riding on a Mary-Go-Round with good friend :)

I love this photo of Mary-Go-Round, especially the colour
This is one of my favourite photos in this trip!
What do you think?

It's a long day, everybody were tired, sky was getting darker.
Qiaoyi and Ken's parents were urging us back, because it's not very secure in Paris at night, a lot of pick pocket.
But, Eiffel Tower has not shine again yet...

We got to pass by the base of Eiffel Tower to the nearest Metro station. Then the guys said they need to use the washroom.
When we girls were waiting...

Suddenly...

Both me and Qiaoyi shouted out loud!
Eiffel Tower shined again!
So gorgeous, so amazing, felt so touched again and again!

The moment has worth everything... everything...

Sanbanto

2009-09-04T23:25:00.010+08:00

Got to stop blogging my Europe trip and slot this post in first.

This is a new restaurant, not solely a restaurant... but shop selling fresh pork too... opps, sorry for those muslim reading this... it's non-halal.

Been eating a lot of pork lately... ate 3 all-pork meals in 3 weeks... crazy or not? As if I'm a big fans to pork... but it's actually nothing wrong for saying so.

1st two times were birthday celebrations to my friends, @ El Cerdo and Sanbanto, then the 3rd time was bringing my colleague for a casual dinner after work @ Sanbanto.

Will blog about El Cerdo later. But I certainly would like to introduce to you this unique pork selling and eating shop - SANBANTO.

What will you relate when seeing this name - SANBANTO? I thought it's a Japanese name, but I was wrong.

It is a family business, according to the owner, to be specific the youngest son who is helping up in the shop, Sanbanto is a name of a place in Johor, somewhere in between Mersing and Kluang and they have their own ISO22000 certified pig farm there. That's the origin of the name. Oh... ic

The shop is located in SS2, same row as KTZ, the desserts house. The shop isn't very big, but 麻雀虽小五脏俱全, sales counter, kitchen, cold storage has already occupied half of the shop, so, space in the dining area is limited. I was lucky, 1st time when I was there, they still be able to spare a small table for 2 at a corner. Then 2nd time, I wouldn't want to take the risk, they are kind enough to let me book a table for 6 and allowed me to book some of their fast selling signatured dishes.

Pork Belly Salad...
doesn't has ** next to the name in the menu, but I find it taste really good, best salad of all

Sanbanto Bread Crumbed Pork ear salad
I think not everybody can accepted this, pork ear is deep fried, I only tried one piece
All salads are served with a small bowl of yellowish sauce, I think this sauce is a mixture of honey with "something"... but I don't know what is/ are the "something"

Pork Bolognese
The pasta is homemade... I tried this in my 1st visit, I think the dish is nice and fun! Because they put pork lard together with the minced meat, what a Spanish & Chinese fusion!

Pork Sphagetti
Actually same style of cooking as pork bolognese, but in my second visit, they said all homemade pasta has sold out, so, they suggested sphagetti, in fact, I like sphagetti more than bolognese, just a personal favourism to sphagetti.

Actually there was another pasta that was recommended by them, it is Cordon Bleu Pasta... but too busy eating... forgot to take picture. The meat roll has cheese wrapping inside, it was very very tasty too...

I like this the most... Sanbanto Bacon N Cheese Burger
The burger is so juicy and tasty... must try must try... highly recommended

BBQ Ribs
my friend said this remind her of Tony Roma's... I don't eat beef, so, I can't comment how true is that, but the pork is really very tender and even the fat layer on top of the meat can melt in mouth too... amazing...
Another friend commented that the sauce is a little bit too sweet, ya... maybe the chef has to do something to it.

Dessert time...
Hot Chocolate Brownie... oooo, the chocolate so rich... I presume, they are using good chocolate, because it has a taste of bitterness, very fine, very pampering.
The guy said it is best in town... well, no comment, you got to try it out first.

"if you wouldn't mind, you can also try another dessert, named Pistachio Pannacotta..." the guy continue selling his dessert to us.
Well, erm, it's an Italian dessert, the dessert tasted like creme brulee without the caramel topping... I can said, I'm still pretty conservative in dessert, I don't really know how to appreciate that, although the presentation is very attractive.

I had a litte chatting with the guy, I asked what make them think of doing this business? He said, they are trying to educate the consumer, what's the real organic pork, because there are too many people out there claimed that they sell organic pork but in fact they are not.

They has a tagline too "From Our Farm to Your Table". The pork products are claimed to be Beta Agonist Free; No Drug Residue and hygienically produced and prepared and they have the Moody Certification too. Well... I know nothing about that, I only know food is nice, price is reasonable... Go try it yourself!

Sanbanto
32, SS2/63,
Petaling Jaya,
47300 Selangor

Tel: +603 78761728

Business Hour
Fresh Pork: 7.00am - 8.00pm
Food: 11.30am - 3.00pm, 6.00pm - 10.00pm

Europe Trip - London Day 2

2009-08-31T21:52:00.002+08:00

Maybe we had been getting enough of sleep for the past few days, on our 2nd day in London, Qiaoyi's mom woke up very early... (FYI, I'm sharing room with Qiaoyi's mom & brother). When she woke up, I woke up too. Initially I thought it's already maybe about 7am or so, but checked out my watch, it's only 5 something in the morning... and looked, I even can took a picture of this through the window of our room.

Beautiful sunrise between London Eye & Big Ben

The canteen in the hotel is homely type. The worker will ask for your choice, then they will prepare it in the kitchen rightaway.

Breakfast was included also... it's a traditional English breakfast - sausage, baked bean, ham and egg with orange juice and coffee or tea

Wailoong, me and Qiaoyi's mom @ Stanley House Hotel entrance

Queue up to buy tube ticket
If purchase ticket after peak hour, the ticket will be cheaper. Since we will not be spending many days in London, we decided to get the daily ticket - £5.60, unlimited ride

We actually had planned to visit s few places, but we were flexible too. 1st station, we planned to walk to Buckingham palace to watch the Changing the Guard.

Then on the way, we passed by this, a shop selling souvenir related to the royal family

The batch on the gate

One of the statues on the corner of the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Posing @ Buckingham Palace
They said when the Union Flag flies from the Palace means the Queen is not in residence

Statue of Queen Victoria

This is either the Angel of Justice/ Truth

This road is called The Mall

A cute little girl posing for her father

The carriage

Waiting for the Changing the Guard

At Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guard takes place at 11.30 am. It is held daily from May to July, and on alternate dates throughout the rest of the year.

Changing the Guard was lead by the band

It took about an hour for the event. And there are a lot of ppl, tourists waiting for the moment. We saw it half way and decided to leave earlier to avoid the jam.

When we went off, we saw these horse guard with silver hat and black horse

We then decided to go to Hard Rock to get the T-shirt. I have collected a few, e.g. Hongkong, Sydney, Bali; so I wanted to collect the London, Paris and Amsterdam too

On the way, we passed by Wellington Arch and a park
(I have no idea what's the name of this park)

Qiaoyi's mom & me @ Wellington Arch

Crosses in the park

Resting & fruit eating @ the park

Pigeons @ the park

It was about 12 something, so, we decided to have our lunch @ Hard Rock

Lunch @ Hard Rock Cafe

Qiaoyi's family & I

The merchant shop is next door...

Coming out from the England telephone booth (aka Superman's changing room) with my Hard Rock paper bag. hehe

Then we walked to the nearest tube station to visit the new stadium, on the way, we saw this

Yeah! our home brand... LIMKOKWING University

It's summer time, the local people enjoying the sun @ Green Park

Waiting for the tube

The new Emirates Stadium

The nearest station to Emirates Stadium - Arsenal

Half way walking, Qiaoyi's mom shoes have spoil, so, we went shopping!
That day was very hot, I mean the weather, shopping was a good idea to stay away from the sun.
But I have forgotten where was the place we went shopping d, if not mistaken, I think is Oxford Street.

After shopping, we were exhausted... but the day was still young, too early for dinner and we didn't want to go back to hotel yet, because once rest, you would not want to come out again. So, we continued our journey...

Next, we went to see the Big Ben & London Eye.

Frankly speaking, Big Ben had chased away my sleepiness and tireness.
When I walked out from the station, omg, I looked up and saw this huge and tall Big Ben standing in front of me... it was very soul-stiring and amazing, I don't know how to describe this feeling, but I felt so touched.

Kenleong shot me taking this picture

Big Ben standing tall near the exit of the subway

Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminter Bridge, River Thames and me

Under the Westminter Bridge
Big Ben as the background

Walking across the bridge, there are The London Aquarium and London Eye

A long-leg elephant statue in between The London Aquarium and London Eye

A gondola of London Eye

A Dali sculpture near London Eye
The human body sculpture separated into 2 with an egg in between...
Do you have any idea what's the meaning behind?

A street performer imitating Charlie Chaplin

@ The Golden Jubilee Bridge to take picture with London Eye & Big Ben

My body "battery" left about 20% after visiting to Big Ben & London Eye, but before we go to China Town again for dinner... how could we miss out Tower Bridge? Initially, we were thinking, shall we just skip Tower Bridge, anyhow, we will be back to London again after the tour to Paris and Amsterdam.
End up, we still managed to drag ourselves there... no regret tho, Tower Bridge is another amazing building in London.

The tiny yellow flower on the way to Tower Bridge... beautiful right?
I looked enjoy in the picture but the flower was really smelly...

LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
FALLING DOWN, FALLING DOWN
LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
MY FAIR LADY...
I know, this is not the London Bridge, but since young, when we sing this song, the image of Tower Bridge will appear in our mind.
Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see the bridge open up from the middle... no big boat passing by.
This is the last picture of the day, because both of my camera and Kenleong's camera batteries had died off...
Visited to so many places and took so many photos... must be la...

This photo was taken a day before, my friend said the roasted duck is famous in town. So, after the long day, we didn't want to explore anymore... we just took the recommendation and walked into this restaurant...
Ya, my friends are right... the food is really delicious

I felt a little excited going to bed, because the next day we will be in Paris d!! Yeah!!

p/s: some of the photos were taken from Kenleong's camera, same to the previous 2 blog entries and coming up blog entries about my Europe trip.

Europe Trip - London Day 1

2009-08-29T22:33:00.002+08:00

After a good night rest... we woke up earlier to catch the Megabus to London. Besides, we got to leave some of our luggage with the concierge too, because we will be back to the same hotel in Glasgow after London, Paris and Amsterdam.

The breakfast was included, it was pretty simple but we enjoyed it. There are cheese, butter, croissant, bread, all sort of coffee, hot chocolate, milk, tea and cereal free flow. Had little surprise in the morning. Wailoong joined us for breakfast together with Chihmun, he just dropped by, said hi to everybody before he went to work. I thought I can only see him after traveling to those cities.

FYI, Megabus takes about 9 hours from Glasgow to London (8.30am - 5.30pm). Meaning which, we will be spending almost a day in the bus. So, Chihmun suggested us to take some bread from the hotel to eat in the bus, although the bus will stop few times in different stations, but it won't be stopping for long, probably just enough for you to buy some snacks or a toilet break.

On the way, we saw a lot of farms, which they use to keep sheeps, horses or cows; mountains too of course...
1st hour in bus, we think that's interesting, because if you have by chance took the long distance buses in Malaysia, we can saw only palm plantation, or rubber plantation.

But in 2nd hour, 3rd hour, 4th hour... zzzzzzz

The driver was driving carefully, not too fast, very stable, it's absolutely different compare to our country. Then they changed driver half way, which I think this is very responsible. If you really want me to complain something, I think the seats are a little bit small (it's just ok for me but I wonder, how those big size "ang mo" sit comfortably in the bus?).

Scenery on both sides of the highway

1st stop at Preston
I think this is the town area, buildings are very old but unique

If there's a reality show title "If you think you can sleep", then I think I will be the champaign. No la, I think everybody also can sleep. Because really has nothing to do in the bus unless sleeping, day dreaming, reading and thinking.

Reached London after about 9 hours in the bus

We reached Victoria Station at about 5pm something and our hotel was a road or 2 from the station, Qiaoyi had done a very good job in booking of this Hotel - Stanley House which the location of the hotel is absolutely very strategic, near to the tube station, bus station and etc.

When we were there, Diong already waited for us in the lobby! Yeah! He is a very good friend of us in high school and not only him, me too, looking forward to seeing him. Of course I did notify him before I go and we had already fixed that day to meet for dinner.

I asked Diong to invite Karchin too, Karchin is another high school friend of us working in London. When we were about to depart for dinner, Karchin greeted us at the entrance. Wow, how amazing... we never see each other for about 2 - 3 years and now we were seeing each other in a foreign land. The even amazing part is, these two friends, both were working in London for so many years, never see each other. I couldn't believe that.
So, that night was a little gathering for us - Qiaoyi, Kenleong (Qiaoyi's husband), Diong, Karchin and me.

@ Victoria Train Station
Our first group photo in London (in fact, in the trip too!)
Diong was helping us to take the photo.

Diong brought us to China Town for dinner, how to reach there? By tube la... tube in London is very convenient, it's connecting everywhere.

But the crowd scared me....

1st time taking the tube... looking at the map, it's very complicated... but no worries, we have good tour guides - Wailoong, Diong and Karchin

Street performer @ the tube station

The long elevator
There are few levels of tube rail underground, I have no idea how those genius engineers built that.

2nd group photo of us
@ China Town, London

The menu of the Chinese restaurant where we dined in

Below were the dishes that we ordered

Duck! one of my favourite

They fried the meat and teared into pieces, then wrap in the dumpling skin with special sauce
Yummy

Hongkong Gaile

Forgot the name of this dish, not very nice...

Steamed fish

Toufu

Eggplant with minced pork

This fruit platter was complimentary, the presentation can only impress those guai lou... hahaha, (dry ice in water)
According to my dear friends working in London, they said watermelon and some tropical fruits in London are very expensive, so, no matter how full we were, we got to finish that... hahaa

Diong and Karchin spent us that dinner... I asked them why? They said because we came all the way to London, that's why we have to be their guests. Then I laughed...
When Diong was back to KL, we all wanted him to pay for the bill, reason being he is earning pounds... this is so funny... no matter where, he always kena bullied. hahaha

The mini gathering dinner
Standing on left: Kenleong, Diong and Wailoong
Sitting from left: Karchin, Qiaoyi & Wailoong's mother, me, Kenleong's parents and next to Kenleong's mother is Qiaoyi

After dinner, we walked around...

Les Miserable
One of the famous play in London... unfortunately, out schedule all packed up, I didn't get to watch any

SOHO - red light district

Diong said the show is funny... I hope I can go back to London again to watch the play

The black cab

Street artist

Ripley's Believe It or Not ticket counter

Karchin & I @ Ripley's Believe It or Not
The other 2 "people" are fake one, but the texture of their skin are so close to a real human

begger? or he just felt asleep on the street?

Paddington bear... should have gotten it when I saw it...
I didn't bought any Paddington Bear throughout my trip in London... :(

The famous video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building, a landmark @ Piccadilly Circus
My friend said, McDonald and Coca-Cola advertisements are always up there

High school buddies...
from left: Kenleong, Qiaoyi, Karchin, me and Diong

Statue of an archer known as Eros standing tall in the middle of Shaftesbury memorial fountain

The fountain @ Trafalgar Square
From Piccadilly Circus, we walked aross some streets, and we came to Trafalgar Square, Diong and Karchin told us that, in day, Trafalgar has a lot of pigeon, so, they called it pigeon square too.

Then we took the bus back to our hotel.
Before we separated, I insisted to take this photo... dear friends, I'll always miss you... and thanks for everything you guys had arranged for us.

Europe Trip - Flying to Glasgow

2009-08-23T16:14:00.001+08:00

I'm lucky enough to travel with my 2 best best girl friends this year... In April - travel to Macau with Kitman, end of June - travel to Europe with Qiaoyi.

It took me a long time to make up my mind until I finally made my flight ticket payment to Glasgow. A lot of concerns behind, but, after all, not going to look back now.

Qiao Yi and her mom were going to Wailoong's (Qiaoyi's brother) convocation in Glasgow, then Ken (Qiaoyi's husband) and his parents tagged along, so, I'm the only "outsider" there.
(Thanks Qiaoyi and her families for me taking me as an outsider)

June and November are usually my busiest months in the company, still wanna to thanks my company for granted me the long leaves after the company national recognition rally. I can't really sleep well a week before I departed to Glasgow. Busy for the preparation and rehearsal, and I had not pack my luggage until the very last minute.

On 27th of June, the function ended at 7pm. I got home at 8pm, showered, dinner, final packing, rushed to Leisure Mall to purchased a brand new camera... (ya, I know I'm crazy, I shouldn't have had take this risk, luckily the camera that I bought - Panasonic TZ7 didn't disappoint me, the functions and pictures turned out nice). At about 10.15pm, my parents sent me to Qiaoyi's house to take a cab to the airport.
(I still couldn't believe I did all those things in 2 hours, but my luggage was real heavy and big, because I just threw everything in, to be safe, I pack a lot of extra clothes)

I was exhausted, but I got very excited when Qiaoyi told me a good news. (Can't reveal without her permission).

We met Ken & his family at KLIA at 12am (28th June). Checked in, walked around and boarded. We were going to Dubai for transit.

We took Emirates, the seat was not very comfortable, but luckily I was tired enough, and I was able to slept all the way to Dubai.
(Actually was planned to grap the chance to watch a few movies that I wanted to watch, but really beh tahan the tireness)

Flight took off at 2am & reached Dubai 8.30am (Malaysia time)/ 4.30am (Dubai time). Got to wait another 3 hours in the airport for the flight to Glasgow.

Dubai Terminal 3
Although Dubai Terminal 3 is much bigger and more beautiful than KLIA, I'm still very proud of KLIA

Qiaoyi & me @ Dubai Terminal 3
with our half wake-up look

Dubai money has almost the same rate as RM, me and Qiaoyi changed RM50 each.
Later, we found out, the cost of living in Dubai is double or even triple of KL.
A meal of McD cost about 25 Dubai dollar.

In the flight again... yeah... heading to Glasgow
A brand new world for me
(a kampung girl making a big leap to a western country)
Ahh~~~Got to sit in the flight for another 7 and a half hours agin!!

At 12.30pm (Glasgow time), finally... finally...
Excited? Can't feel the excitement yet, still very blur after long hour in flight.
Although there was still an expectation there.

Toilet time! What is this?
teeth wipe dispenser, told you d, I'm kampung girl, never saw this before.
But I didn't try... because my teeth were still clean. Why? The flight attendance woke us up from time to time to eat and drink... and I didn't have bad breath... hehe

Wailoong came to pick us up at the airport...

He guided us to take this transit back to hotel

A big light bulb (right) - ME!

The bus stop at Buchanan Bus Station and our hotel, Express by Holiday Inn is just a short distance away. Love both of the room and location of this hotel.
The room is very clean and spacious, beds are comfortable. Location wise, it's in the town, close to bus station, Buchanan Street (the shopping street) and a lot of restaurant nearby.

We checked in to the hotel, rest & freshened up abit, then Wailoong brought us to George Square, I think he is very excited to see all of us, he was eager to show us around in glasgow. We too, very excited... with a little bit tireness.
4pm in Glasgow = 11pm in KL
The first time I experienced jet-lag...

The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
The hall where Wailoong's convocation was held
Has no idea who's this with a cross on his forehead
By chance captured a seagull in flying in the picture too

A street performer with Scottish Kilt @ Buchanan Street
Cool!

Summer time, flower season
I love this pink, especially with the greyish cement backgroup

JAMES WATT
if you don't know who he is, go study your physic again

There's a lot of statues on tall pillar in George Square
James Watt is the only statue that I know

The flower arrangement in George Square...
Very bright and interesting combination of flower and colours

Glasgow City Chambers @ George Square

Youngsters chilling out @ George Square

We then headed to Rumours Kopitiam for an early dinner @ 6pm
(1am Malaysia time, real early right?)
Rumours is opened by a Malaysian, and they served Malaysian/ Singaporean food.
I think Rumours is a most often visited restaurant of Wailoong, that's why he brought us there for our first meal in Glasgow. However, we just came from Malaysia, errrr... we actually not yet missing Malaysian food...

We ordered Hainan Chicken Rice, Yin Yong, Nasi Lemak, Chinese Style Fried Rice...

The portion is huge! Probably also because of the jet-lag, I can only take 1/3 of my dish. The rest was wasted... so guilty.

Since the next morning we got to wake up early to catch our bus to London, we decided to call it a day.
I went to bed with slight disappointment, because I still haven't met the one that I thought I will be meeting.

Bidor

2009-08-21T23:17:00.001+08:00

Think of Bidor, I think of "gai zai beng" (chicken biscuit). My parents definitely know Bidor better than me. After Sungai Klah Air Panas, we headed to Bidor for Duck drumstick noodle! Duck... one of my favourite!

It's only about 15 minutes drive from the hot spring to Bidor town. When we parked our car in one of the lorong, we saw this shop, which has been on TV before.

Yea, they are making and selling all these cute little "gong zai beng" (doll biscuit)

Piggies baking in oven

Tortoises, waiting to be entered to the oven to bake

This year is cow year.
This cow family has just came out from the oven and displayed nicely at the counter

In town, there are fruit stalls on both side of the main street.
I think because it's fruity season now, the stalls are selling various tropical fruits, you name, they have it

Finally we reached the noodle house... gosh... it's only 5 something, close to 6pm, how come the restaurant already jam-packed with customer?

A family enjoying their food, I think, they are like us, has a family day out

The menu & kitchen

There is a small counter in the middle of the shop selling "wu gok" (yam bao filled with bbq pork).
This old man is working hard to pack the wu gok in box to customer. He is real fast and professional.
When I entered the restaurant, there was already a long queue at the stall.

The filling
I think the taste only so so... no doubt, it's fresh from the wok, but I can easily find a better one in some of the dim sum restaurant in KL, eg. the Kuchai Lama one.

They have counter selling some local homemade biscuit too

Almond Lou Po Beng (wife biscuit)

Another type of Lou Po Beng

At the entrance, this stall is selling bbq pork (cha siu) rice
We didn't try this, because we have already ordered our duck drumstick noodle, but look at the meat... mouth watering already

Phrases compose with the name of this shop "Bun Zan"

Tada... here comes our duck drumstick noodle
"wantan" noodle in herbal soup with tender duck drumstick
Although the restaurant has no air-con, weather was hot, we were sweating like nobody business and the bowl was hot, but still, we enjoyed the noodle very much.
As I said, when you are eating with the right person, you will easily satisfied with any presentation or taste of the food
(of course the food shouldn't be too difficult to put into mouth la)

The uncle was pulling out those stewed duck meat in herbal soup from the steam oven

The aunty was preparing the noodle

This is the restaurant in sepia mode

The restaurant has real lots of people waiting for the tables, after we finished our food, we got to give the seat to other long-waited customers.
Time was still early after the dinner, so, we decided to walked around the town, we shopped coffee powder for grandparents, shopped around those fruit stalls and "yim guk gai" (salted chicken) shop. We took dinner early, so, this yim guk gai is perfect for supper back home.

Sungai Klah Hot Spring, Perak

2009-08-16T13:59:00.000+08:00

In a sunny Sunday, my dad suggested a family breakaway. Yeah, it has been a long time we never had a family day out. Initially he was suggesting Malacca, but I wanted to go to the hot spring they always mentioned. My parents been there couple of time with their friends without me, so, I was "nagging" them to bring me there... Then they agreed! oh yes, I'm a spoiled kid.

Departed from KL after breakfast, we reached there in an hour of drive. Actually that day was pretty hot... I'm the only weirdo in the family who is not afraid of "hot", my poor parents, they got to bear with the sun and accompany their unreasonable daughter to HOT SPRING in a HOT DAY!

Got to wear this band to enter the Hot Spring
Got to pay to get in, you know!

Our luggage, cute right?

The canteen...
from a Chinese-always-business minded point of view, the government should get some real restaurants in, in stead of let those local Malays selling only soft drink and nasi lemak or mee hoon goreng there, somemore in a crowded Sunday, food sold off before 1pm. Where's Starbucks? Where's McD? Where's KFC? No sushi? No Haagen Dazs? Hey, wake up, if the government really wanted to make this place a tourist spot, do something!!!

Dad & mom walking to the hot spring swimming pool...
I wanted to try something else... So, I didn't follow them... let them to have some private time together.

tiny fish in crystal clear river... of course, the water in this river is cold one

Water in the hot spring pool is too hot... the children cool themselves down with this pot of cold water

There are a lot of pool with different temperature
This pool is real hot, you can't soak yourself in. Even I tried to put my legs in, I can only bear with it for less than 15 minutes. But it is good for therapy, enhance blood circulation!

This is the eye. Hot water keep flowing out. With the boiling temperature... nobody can be able to touch the water... except... the eggs!

The guy is waiting for his eggs to get boiled... hehe

This is a family pool, the water temperature is only around 30-35 degree celcius

This is one of the swimming pool at the entrance...

This is another swimming pool after the canteen

Foot reflexology under the hot water

Hot water fountain

And I ended up enjoying myself in this room - I bought myself a half hour back massage (Ayurveda style, using spices powder to rub the back)
After the massage, my body was full of spices powder. She offered to help me to shower off... gosh, so embarasing. I think she get my signal, she only clean my back and left me in the room to clean myself.

A private hot spring jacuzzi next to the massage room
In my package, I was only entitled a back massage, but the message lady is kind enough to allow me to dip in the jacuzzi.
I am not daring enough to get myself naked in the pool (it's open air), luckily she allow me to wear my t-shirt in.

My shoulder stiffness and pain has relieved after the massage.
What a good way to pamper myself!

Walked around the garden, the trees are all well-labelled with family & species name.
Picture above is a ripen coco, below is an infected one, yuck!

Unknown fruit

Unknown flowerss..

yer... geli geli

I love this flower... as pure as lotus

胭脂红
My dad was very happy to see this... he said he used to pick a lot of this during his childhood
but how come it's not red in color?

The 胭脂红 tree

A lot of durian trees along the entrance... and now is the fruiting season...
My mom hoped there's one falling down and we get to pick a fresh one home...
but mom, isn't the durian only falls in the middle of the night?

Real lots of durian!

Direction: From KL north up along North-South Highway, turn in at Sungkai/ Trolak exit, turn left, follow either the Felda sign or Sungai Klah Air Panas sign then you should be able to find the place... exit on the left from the main road to the road leads to Sungai Klah is not very far from the tol.

I strongly recommend this place for family day trip, resorts also available, but it's quite pricey and I think room is limited, pre-booking to avoid disappointment. Click the link for more information
http://www.malaysiavacationguide.com/hotsprings.html

Penang in May 2009

2009-08-16T09:10:00.000+08:00

Penang is one of my favourite state in Malaysia... not to mention is because of the food, in specific, my good friends are there - LingTze, ILeen. Don't know if this is related, Penang also my dad's birth place. NO, I don't really think so, he grown up in KL, not Penang... his entire life has nothing to do with Penang, except that's his birth place.

My work brings me to Penang again in May. I stayed in Cititel... and I like staying there... the room is not too big, just nice to fit me in, most importantly - clean! This time, they gave me a room which has a perfect view of Komtar.

Crossing Penang bridge, on my way to Prai...

Curry fish head... famous in Butterworth...
The stall selling this is in one of the kopitiam in town
A bit fishy... and the curry tasted like those indian curry. Nice to go with rice.

Yam rice
wow... Hardly find this in KL d
Last time there was a bak kut teh restaurant near my house selling this, and my family always love to have dinner there on Sunday. Since the restaurant has moved, we hardly find any good one in the neighbourhood.
Never expected that I got the chance to eat this again this time. Nice!

Above is braised pork and below is pepper pork soup, eating with the yam rice...
Although all these seems like shouldn't eat in a hot sunny day, but... just love them regardless of the weather... my sensory cells to "hot weather" aren't working most of the time.

Because after Butterworth, I will need to be in Bukit Mertajam, so, I was heading there without checking any hotel availability. Coincidently, in such a small town, all of the hotels were being fully occupied, why? Election!! Not again! The nearest clean, comfy and affordable hotel that I could get my friend & operator to recommended to me is B-Suite.
I really don't mind to go back to Penang Island again and especially when I entered the room... It's absolutely worth it!

The view from my room in B-Suite Hotel

Opera

2009-08-13T19:28:00.006+08:00

My grandparents used to sing Opera for living... but I know nothing about this mysterious traditional art, erm... when I get older, maybe should learn a lesson or 2, should be fun.

However, the Opera that I'm posting now is not the Chinese drama, Opera... it's a restaurant, located @ Upper Penang Road...

I went to Penang for my company's centres stock audit in May. My dearest "hubby" - I Leen brought me candle light dinner @ this restaurant
p/s: althogh she just got married, but she will always be my dearest hubby, forever..., opps, sorry, I'm not a lesbian either

Once we step in, a friendly waiter came to greet us and lead us to a nice corner right away. At the corner, a modernize chandelier was right at the back of I Leen, the waiter then light up the candle held by a stone craving doll on our table, at that moment... I was drown, I felt lucky to dine with such a wonderful and pretty angel in my life!

Nice ambience

I'm sure he is also enjoying the ambience alone in the restaurant

I Leen ordered Aromatic Duck as starter to share

This is similar to Beijing Duck - crispy roasted duck skin slice and wrap in rice paper, eating together with spring onion and special sauce.
But this Aromatic Duck is tear the roasted duck meat and wrap in egg paper, similarly, eating with spring onion, carrot slices and special sauce.

Yummy

Then, main dish, I Leen ordered their spicy chicken with cashewnut and I ordered western dish - Fish & chips

I think the main dish was only a pass, nothing special, in fact, I like fish deep-fry in another way, not this.

Dessert... ya, we actually couldn't finished our main dish, because we wanted to save some space for the desserts.

Deep-fry banana roll with vanilla ice-cream
I Leen likes this

I forgot about the name for this, it's fresh manggo and the vanilla ice-cream was wrapped in thin crispy flour coat
Nice presentation!

It was a memorable and pleasant night to dine out with I Leen. After we finished the dishes, it's already very late at night, so, we decided to go back to the hotel. Then, she stood up and started walking out, I was in shock! Hey, we haven't pay yet!
Then she laughed, ya, we don't have to pay... then only I realized, before the desserts were served, I Leen went to the ladies and at the same time, she already settled the bill... No matter how I asked about the amount of bill, she refused to tell and refuse to accept my money.

Oh my angel... what can I say? Thank you my dear...

Mother's day dinner

2009-08-12T21:18:00.005+08:00

Gosh... mother's day was 3 months back... and now only I post up this. pai seh pai seh...

Like last 2 years... this year, besides than the top that I knit for my mom (actually that was suppose to be CNY present, haha), I cooked for both of my parents too.

As usual 3 dishes + 1 soup... let's check out the recipe book!

The weather is getting hotter... so, first thing crossing my mind was, make something more cooling, less heaty

Roasted Pig's Trotter and Dried Bai Cai Soup
(recipe from Quick & Easy Hawkers' Fair by Alan Kok)

Ingredients:
1 roasted pig's trotter (500g), cut into pieces
(of course I ask the butcher to help me)
1 dried cuttlefish, cleaned
200g bai cai, cleaned
50g dried bai cai, soaked and cleaned
1500ml water
salt to taste

Methods:
1. Blanch roasted pig's trotter and pork in boiling water for a short while. Dish up and cleaned. (this can also help to remove some of the oil too)
2. Place all ingredients into a double-boiler. Double-boil at high heat for 3 hours. Add salt and taste. Serve hot.

Actually, I should put the roasted pig's trotter at the bottom, so the soup taste can taste better and more salty, because the bai cai & dried bai cai taste slight soury.
Then I was too greedy, wanted to put everything in but my double-boiler isn't big enough. I should at the beginning reduce a bit of meat and bai cai. End up, this bowl is just "ngam ngam" for 3 of us, some soup flowed out when it boiled.

My dad is a typical cantonese, he loves this soup very very much... as much as I do!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following 3 dishes need plenty of garlic... garlic in different shape...

Chopped garlic, garlic slice and peeled garlic in small pips

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crispy Garlic Flakes with Plum Sauce Chicken
(recipe from Hawkers' Fair... Best of All Time Favourites by Chef Phang Fah)

Ingredients:
2 chicken whole legs, cut into pieces
(I learned from my previous mistake, I don't dare to chop, so, I ask the man chop for me)
10 pips garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

Marinade:
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine

Sauce (mixed well):
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp plum sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
salt to taste

Methods:
1. Mix chicken with marinade and marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Deep-fry sliced garlic in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Dish and drain.
(when you see the color is slighly lighter than expected, should start dishing up, or it will be very dark after cool down)
3. Deep-fry chicken in hot oil until golden brown and cooked. Dish and drain.
(I didn't really deep-fry it, I only fry with oil until cooked)
4. Cook sauce in a wok until thick and sticky. Put in chicken and mix well. Dish up, sprinkle fried garlic flakes on top and serve.

I sprinkle some spring onion on too too! Make the color to be more interesting

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fish Head with Garlic & Roasted Pork
(recipe from Hawkers' Fair... Best of All Time Favourites by Chef Phang Fah)

Ingredients:
1 fresh water fish head (I use "Wan Yu")
100g roasted pork, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
10 slices ginger
2 stalks spring onion, cut into 3cm length

Seasoning:
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp shaoxing wine
dash of pepper and sesame oil
200ml water
1 little corn flour water for thickening

Methods:
1. Rub fish head with 1 tbsp ligh soya sauce and deep-fry in hot oil for 2 minutes. Dish up.
(my mom said, if you doesn't want your fish to look so dark, can just ignore the soya sauce)
2. Deep-fry garlic in hot oil until golden brown. Dish up.
(in stead of deep-fry, can saute with a little bit of oil until fragrant)
3. Leave 1 tbsp oil in wok, saute ginger until fragrant. Add in the remaining ingredients, fish head, seasoning and cook for 5 minutes. Remove fish head, thicken the gravy with corn flour water and pour over fish head. Serve hot.

The head is too big... the head and the meat broke into 2 when I was trying to dish up... hahaa
I put them back before I pour the gravy.
Because head is big, meat is thick, there's some part of fish has not fully cooked yet. I should cut the meat, so it can be cooked faster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stir-Fried Spicy Assorted Beans
(Hawkers' Fair Simplified by Alan Kok & Bryan Ong)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked
100g long beans, cut into 3cm length
100g sweet peas
100g lady's finger, sliced
100g egg plant, sliced
1 red chilli, shredded

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of chicken stock granules

Methods:
1. Deep-fry long beans, sweet peas, lady's finger and egg plant in hot oil for 1 minutes. Dish up.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp oil, saute chopped garlic and dried prawns util fragrant.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients, seasoning and stir-fry until well-mixed. Dish up and serve.

I failed this dish... too much oil d... I should have use the kitchen tissue to reduce the oil before step 3.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mother's day dinner!!!
It's not easy to make a dinner... that's the reason why I usually rather go home for dinner, unless I told my mom in advance I'll be eating out with friend, so she doesn't need to cook so much and most importantly, effort will not be wasted.

THANKS MOM FOR TAKING GOOD CARE OF ME & DAD.
AND I WISH HER HEALTHY AND HAPPY!

张智成 - 暗恋

2009-08-01T23:19:00.005+08:00

词曲：彭学斌

四目交接的时候不要停留太久
适可而止的问候关心不能太过
好奇也别去探索妒嫉只能深锁
如果忍不住寂寞也不能对你说

啊好朋友啊我的好朋友
不小心的沉默不想让你太难过
我们就站在落地窗的两边
就算触碰也有了界限
如果跨越过彼此那道边界
是靠近还是更遥远
相信我们走到另一个境界
搭肩高唱友谊万万岁
要是我爱你变成了语言
什么会多一些什么会少一些

就让别人去猜测我们清白的很
就让自己去承受那种清白的闷
就算我只是朋友能不能有要求
如果会发生什么也是我想太多

啊好朋友就只是好朋友
不小心说出口微笑中藏着难过
我们就站在落地窗的两边
就算触碰也有了界限
如果跨越过彼此那道边界
是靠近还是更遥远
你会不会也曾闪过这感觉
一念之间就要差一点
要是我爱你变成了利剑
什么会被消灭什么才会复原

那是我的底线继续将你暗恋

[Wonder how can the composer/ writer of this song understand so much about secret love? Furthermore, he can describe and pictured the love so vivid until you could actually "see" the 2 main characters' "reaction" by just listening to the song once.]

Macau Trip

2009-08-01T18:48:00.007+08:00

My trip was in end of April, but now only I have time to post up this (I know this is another lame excuses).

I went with 2 very close friends, Kitman & Lingtze (they are bloggers too). Kitman came back from US, and we wanted to go for a trip, because we never go for any holiday trip since graduated from high school. Then Lingtze wanted to go too, because she never been there, so to me & Kitman. Furthermore, in March, there's a Matta Fair, although our trip wasn't book in the fair, but is during that period where a lot of travel agencies were doing some promotion. But I think our trip was a bit costly. Each of us have to pay around RM1.3K for a 3 days 2 nights trip. Do you think it is expensive? (Package including 2 nights hotet stay, 2 breakfast @ hotel, half day tour, air ticket & airport transfer)

We enjoyed the trip very much and we took a lot of pictures (yes, believe me, I mean A LOT). That's why I got to categorized mine and make it into these...

p/s: some wording might be too tiny, got to click on the picture to enlarge in order to view & read clearly.

Must see 1...

Must see 2...

Must see 3...

Must see 4...

Must eat 1...

Must eat 2...

Must see 5...

A big mistake that I made was, I brought only t-shirt, singlets and shorts, and it's Macau raining season when we were there. The weather was cold enough to kill me, especially when the wind blow, Gosh, we girls always yelled out loud when we walked out from our hotel, and made a turning to the road to Senator Square. So funny.

One thing I got to say is, although our hotel wasn't a very nice one, I mean the room, a little too small and smell a bit, but the location is very strategic and the breakfast there is very very delicious.

Will definitely go to Macau again, it's such an interesting place to explore...

More original photos can be view @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/11702386@N03/sets/72157621787366451/

My High School - Chong Hwa Independent High School

2009-07-17T11:00:00.000+08:00

My back to school trip
Words cannot explain how I feel about my school, might as well save it and let the pictures tell.

The main entrance

The admin building

Hostel

The assembly hall

Guang Qian Tang

The canteen building

Walk way to Guo Zhi Lou

The 4 words
Any Chong Hwa Independent High School student will know

The new basketball courts
They were built after I left the school

Volleyball court

Technology building

Foot reflexology

Little gym area

Another basketball court
Last time we used to have 4, but I think now they have more than that

The amoeba fish pond
one of the favourite hang out area

We used to take our class photo here

bear bear dao chi yi you

p/s: I miss my high school and of course I miss my school time and friends. When I was rounding the school, it brought back a lot of sweet memories. Then I saw some juniors. I was thinking, after few years later, when they have graduated, and re-visited the school again, will they have the same feeling as mine?

Treasure whatever in hand.

Flower in My High School

2009-06-21T11:54:00.000+08:00

Photos were taken in April... just that lately been really busy with work & traveling around...
Will write more in my next post to introduce my high school.

My High School - Chong Hwa Independent High School

Green Insect

2009-06-13T22:32:00.005+08:00

Today my mood is extremely down... frankly speaking, I'm not sure if I ever survive in a corporate world?
Like insect, life cycle always short.

Kota Bahru & Kuala Terengganu Trip

2009-06-13T21:37:00.004+08:00

I had a short trip to Kota Bahru & Kuala Terengganu end of April... and this is a short report of some local food.

Keropok Lekor

(Steam & Fried, 2 types)
Pictures are fried lekor, taste better than than steam because steam lekor is a little too fishy for me.

Nasi Kerabu
The rice is cook with a natural blue coloring extract from flower.
The brownish powder type material on top is coconut shred and chili (the chili is super hot), the rice is served with salted egg, bean sprout and keropok.
Nasi kerabu taste different from nasi lemak, felt heathier although the rice is a bit dry. Worth trying if you ever go to East Coast region.

P/s: I had this at a road side stall, hygienic issue... I think better skip this.

Mom's Knitting Top

2009-05-10T14:55:00.000+08:00

Today is Mother's Day! However, this wasn't my initial plan to give it as mother's day present, it was suppose to be my CNY present to my mom.

This is my first time knitting a top, a lace top. And I didn't expected it will be this difficult. I "conquered" 2 scarf, and was thinking, I should not only knit for my friend, I should knit for my family as well. Scarf isn't very practical in KL, so, I wanted to knit a top.

Went to Sg. Wang again, telling them what was in my mind, the lady boss showed me this pattern and immediately, I think this can fit my mom very well. The modal in the book was wearing white, but my mom always very colourful, so I picked this light yellow. The pattern is sleeveless and I told the lady boss, can I attached it with sleeves? And of course it isn't any problem. So, there I started, and I was talking about I started it since last December.

At the beginning, things wasn't going very well, I always made mistakes and has to re-do all over again for a lot of times until I got so frustrated, I told the lady boss, I wanted to give up. She is very kind, she gives me a lot of encouragement, and patiently taught me a lot of techniques to knit this top, one step after another until I finish this "masterpiece". Please allow me to self-praise a little because this is really one of my "mission impossible" and I DID IT!

Using DMC yarns (6 balls altogether)

Half way through

The graceful leafy-like pattern

When I was knitting it, I always afraid it will be too small... I was wrong... my mom actually not that big size...

Length of the body, sleeve, neckline... everything is just nice

The lace yellow top on her - my mom

Happy Mother's Day!