Sights N Sounds of My Life

Staying Alive

2011-04-27T05:56:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I awe at how hard it is to keep a blog alive @@

There’s actually a few things I wanna blog about, but I just always seems to be able to find reasons not to :-p

Anyway, I just came back from a recent trip to Bangkok, which was completely amazing, and something I really wanna blog about. So, all the specific post I wanna write about can wait, I’ll juz give a quick update about life so far, n make way for my Bangkok trip!

Having said tat, life was pretty much the same, n after non-traveling life for a few months, i actually missed the feeling of flying around, haha. Still, i do enjoy the calmness at home, n the time spent with frens and family.

There’s time when we celebrate…

Bab’s Birthday @ Rise Up Studio, LUF

Dad’s Birthday @ Home

Pei Ling’s Birthday @ Mr. Ho’s

Yang’s Birthday @ Home

Dad’s elder sister birthday dinner

Events to fill up our time…

Education Fair @ BCCK

Circle of voice performance @ Kenyalang Cinema

World Vision sharing session @ Crown Square

Movie Nite @ MBO

K Session @ K-Box

Relauched @ LUF

Post-Relauched Dinner @ Junk

Ding Dang Mini Concert @ Damai Puri

Flip Flop Beach Carnival @ Damai Puri

And of coz there’s always food (and drink)~

Mango Chicken @ Sarawak Club

Lui Cha @ C121

Lamb Burger @ Kado

Milo Special @ corner rojak shop, King’s Centre

Mixed Grill @ Station One

Chicken Hor Fan @ Old Town, The Spring

Grilled fish (the one that can swap cc) @ 101

Ayam Penyet @ Chili Padi

Caesar Salad @ Garden Hill

The new pizza @ Pizza Hut

Herbal Fish @ Fold & Knife

Free Big Breakfast @ McD KIA

Chilling Time @ Platform

Zhao Chai Hong Ngan @ Soon Fatt Cafe

Desserts @ Tian mi mi, 101

Spare Ribs @ Porkie’s Spare Ribs, Jln Song

That’s more or less what happened for the pass 2 months, very briefly. Nothing much, but still well spent ^^. Now we can all look forward to my bkk trip~ hehehe

The 15 Days of CNY

2011-03-07T08:26:00.001-08:00

We have a song for the 12 days of Christmas, I wonder why nobody ever wrote a song for the 15 days of CNY, haha. Anyway, CNY tis year was fun, as always, though it’s the holiday season, it’s much tiring than normal days :-p

Well, Let’s start with CNY eve then~ As I’ve mention i din take leave for cny, n i was almost the only chinese working in the block. When work was finally over i got home n started decorating the house, as wat i would do every year.

After decorating the house we had our reunion dinner n after dinner continue with all the minor but fussy chores. Whole nite there’s fireworks booming around, and around 1130 the fireworks started to be more rapid. I dun really feel excited over cny anymore, but i still like the fireworks very much ^^

3 things I like about CNY, fireworks, wearing new clothes, and FOOD!! (ang pow doesn’t fit in here coz i usually don’t get much from them)

This is the kolo mee sua I had in Tracy’s house~ I usually don’t go house visiting at chu 1 (means the first day of cny) but tis year I went out at noon n got home around 12am. Other than Tracy’s house, which was the first house I visited, all the others were houses i’ve never been n almost all of them were having open house, full till like wat @@

First stop was Steve’s place, n he showed us his 2 babies~

Then went to Irene’s house n had nice sashimi~

After tat bab’s mother’s house for mee sua (again), very very nice!

obviously bernard loves it!

And Kenny’s house where we spend hours playing his xbox360 with motion detection, very fun~

Finally to bab’s place n played cards using pistachios (first for me, haha)

When i reached home it was near midnight n man i was shocked by all the cars outside my house! perng’s frens was all here playing wii n mahjong, the living room was stuffed, n everyone was so excited over boxing n tennis. I sat down n played a couple rounds of mahjong, no luck though >< I turned in at around 4am while the others continue playing.

No plans on chu 2, so I asked the gals to come over to my house to play wii, baba couldn’t make it so onli nana n ming came

I guess they enjoyed the game ^^

Nite time was a gathering with another gang of gals, coz Ivy was going bek the next day and wont be able to join the house visiting on chu 4, so we met up at Delizze for dinner

Ameline was late so she missed the gathering, she came to my house instead for some drinks n chat.

3rd day of cny, was the usual primary schoolmates day, we gathered at king’s center and the proceed to teacher’s house, there’s juz a few of us this year, a lot of ppl couldn’t make it

then the house visiting goes on, snap tis interesting scene at yen ting’s house

and there’s some other liquor too, they actually look very good as decoration ^^

When they reach my house it was already 6 something. Shuang n Alvin will be coming at around 7, so I stayed home n waited for their arrival. I was kinda worried coz our house is no longer child-proof since none of us can be considered “child” anymore, i could hardly find any toys for the children to play with anymore.

Surprisingly sam gotten quite well with my dad, it was nice see the family Kuching, do come again next year ya ^^

Then it was the last day of the cny holiday, and house visiting for the secondary school gang. Mei n Wee couldn’t join us this year, so the group was rather slim. We started at Eve’s house, with her talkative parrot.

he can really say “hello” very well

Then to wee’s house to see her baby, my house and the grace’s house, I left them after tat to join the gals at ming’s house for sin hua pa mee (food comes first :-p)

everything was as planned so far, but after tis something not planned. The gals told me they were going to gym for body pump class, n i din bring any changing clothes at all, baba say she has an extra set she can borrow me, so i followed them to gym, totally unprepared, n it was my first pump class in 2 months! still, it was fun, after class bryan n shirley joined us to nana’s house, n then to my house for wii again~ later dada, cin n nic was also here (n dada say she had body ache the next day coz of wii)

So ends my cny holiday, on monday i went to work as usual, hardly concentrating on work of coz :-p

Tuesday was a little better coz i had free ice~ Igloo has tis open house every year during cny, n tis year i finally manage to eat it (thanks to ming for reminding me!)

They have 4 flavours n 2 variety each to choose from, n who says nothing is free in tis world~ hehehe

Wednesday was chu 7, human day in cny, for those that doesn’t know, everyday in cny is represented by something, and the 7th day is human day, which is suppose to be everyone’s birthday. Every chinese ethnic celebrates it in a different way, for us hakka, we celebrate it with eating lui cha, hakka traditional food

mum’s lui cha is the best ^^

I guess the 7th day is worth celebrating coz it marks tat half the cny is gone? :-p

on Thursday I had a gathering with carol n ai mian, n bernard tagged along too. We went to soulis, havent been there in ages n gosh it’s so different now! it’s connected to T1 n i can imagine spending saturday nite here, must be nice, but as a fine dining restaurant on it’s own, i remembered it to be much better than now. Service is quite slow n the drinks are so-so, but the food’s not bad.

After dinner bernard left us gals to hang around on our own, carol mention about singing so i brought them to platform for some drinks and nite life in kch.

We heard some pretty good singing, kch really got lots of good singers!

Then it’s already friday! ysin asked me for lunch, n asked anne along, we went to brighton square for the pan mee.

love tis~

the bu bu cha cha not bad!

n after gym went to garden hill with the gals for dinner. It’s my first time there, surprisingly it’s a very nice place, n the food’s very good too!

Soon it was the 10th day of cny, n also a saturday, n jerry’s birthday celebration at platform. Was a little surprised to see so many ppl there tat nite, got to know some new frens too ^^

Happy birthday jerry! din really manage to make my “revenge” coz he was already drunk even b4 i started to drink with him. the nite din really ended very well though, coz after platform we went to paragon for 2nd round, n almost witness a huge fight, din really know wat happened coz we ran off as soon as ppl started gather around the fighting crowd.

Monday was the 12th day of cny, and also valentine’s day. Used to did many things on valentine’s day, like selling flowers, going to clubs, having nice dinners, etc (except celebrating it with a bf :-p) tis year i din wanna make it too complicated, so juz gonna go gym n spend it with the gals, though, ended up with some guys as well.

And we saw some fireworks juz in front of us!

watching fireworks beside the river was actually quite romantic ^^ (would have been better if i had a bf beside me thou :-p)

the apple juice is huge! but it was oxidized n tasted pretty bad ><

satay

nasi pattaya

After dinner we juz felt something’s missing (cravings for desert!) so we went to hilton, which was juz opposite to hunt for desert

There was quite a lot of people, but i don’t think that should be an excuse for bad service… a lot of things were not available, the waitress’s attitude was bad, could it be because we don’t look rich? or izzit coz the waitresses was bad mood coz they need to work on valentine’s day? well, i definitely do not think tis is wat i’d expect from a world class hotel

usually they give you extra milk for the hot chocolate, n the milk was not hot enough tat day! the chocolate barely melt >< still love them though ^^

The next day was a public holiday, n it’s movie day~ after gym we went song king hai for ang tao peng, then to spring to get our tickets, wanted to watch shaolin but no more tics available, so we watched what women want instead, still andy lau :-p

i’m so gonna watch tis

Before movie we need to eat of coz, so it’s sushi king time~

still in time to eat the ‘yu shang’

everyone need to say some good words while mixing the ‘yu shang’

nana’s Japanese curry, was quite good

The movie was not bad, i just adore gong li’s character in the movie! After the movie we went to novus cafe at jln song for supper

tis is nice

love their coco bailey!

Soon it was the last day of cny, and also chinese valentine’s day, got a surprise at the office, not for me but for my good friend grace

got to say good job to the bf, hehe

The last day of cny, also known as chap goh mei (the 15th nite in hokkien), and also known as yuan xiao jie in mandrin, ‘jie’ is similar to ‘day’ in english, and ‘yuan xiao’ is actually dumpling, so the 15th day of cny is actually the day to eat dumpling, but i think ppl in malaysia don’t really do that, however, we did tis year ^^

And so ends cny 2011, and begins the year of the rabbit, oh, n i forgot to mention that another thing i love about cny, is all the gatherings and meeting ppl you’d probably only get to meet during cny, and visiting ppl’s house tat u’d probably won’t do in usual days. Love the house decoration as well coz the houses juz look so different and everyone’s in a celebrating mood. In other words, even though i’m not a child anymore, and I don’t really prepare for cny like i used to do, u know i love cny ^^

Before CNY

2011-02-12T04:34:00.001-08:00

After coming bek from my trip it was time to get ready for chinese new year. Wasn’t really in the mood, may be i’m getting too old for this :-p

Anyway, the company dinner rumoured to be held on the week that I was in Medan, but luckily before my trip the notice came out and confirmed the date to be on the week that I came bek from Medan. So, on friday I dressed up for the nite.

The theme this year was “Everybody go go green” So i suppose we should all dress in green? I don’t really have any green dresses so I borrowed some (Thanks Baba!)

It was actually fun seeing everyone in green, and the people that won the best dressed was really creative, too bad I forgot to snap the photos >__<

The dinner was suppose to start on 7pm, we got there around 7 something (know la, tis kind of dinner usually start late one :-p) and the place was still half empty, while waiting i snapped some photos

can anyone tell me wat is tis??

At 830pm finally the emcees started talking. I was extremely hungry @_@

the food really so-so onli

and we have the very green guy singing

Then it was time for speeches, not gonna say anything about it here, but the highlight of the speech was probably when the CEO say we’re gonna receive our bonus within the next week, hoho~ and when he mention about a bottle on every table, i tot he was joking @@

i was wrong @@

n i had my share of the beer~

And I believe it was the first time the managing committee opened a champagne on stage. There were a lot of liquors left, y i had to be sick tat nite T__T

Then it was time for the game, tis year it’s project runway, not too hard to guess wat it’s about, we were given some newspapers to “design” our models.

the guys designing the guy model

n the ladies designed the lady model

And it was time for the fashion show!

Never knew my koliks were all so creative, n they had to come out with the design in such a short time! our group won 2nd place in the game, i was pretty impress with the traditional spear n shield tat they made too.

the hamper that we won

a snap of the siblings

Both of us din had any luck with the lucky draw, our table onli got one of the smaller draw. Grace’s table however, got 4 of the prizes, and they even got the 2nd prize!

the couple n the prize

It’s a printer inside, well, not very impressive, but still a prize :-p

The dinner finished at 11 something, the food was not very good, but we had a good time.

It was the date for our wardrobe exchange on Saturday, but in the end, there was onli 3 of us, and we chatted the whole afternoon without really looking at the clothes, well, I did exchange one of my clothes with Ming. Gonna wear it to work on my first working day ^^

At nite I had to go to dad’s company dinner. Perng wasn’t feeling too good after the dinner last nite (too much food?) so I went alone with my parents. The same nite they were going for the japanses buffet at grand magarita, I always wanted to go for tat one, but too bad, had to accompany mum, else she might bored to death :-p

The food was much better tis round, but they served it so fast, there was hardly space on the table to put them, n by 830pm I was already super full, n 24 hours b4 tat, i was starving, LIFE @@

Sunday was a pretty busy day, I went for facial, then to body jam, n after tat went to Spring for some shopping

Spring in CNY mood

some astro event going on

shu uemura is opening!

Wanted to mayb shop for some new clothes to wear during cny, but end up bought some t-shirts instead :-p

On Wednesday it was CNY theme for Body Jam, so I went all dressed up, but seems like no one really dressed up except me n ming >_< kch ppl too shy kah??

alright, mayb i dun look too cny, at least it’s red :-p

It was also Jaf’s birthday, so we went Sambal for a little dinner cum supper.

Their nasi lemak is nice, a little oily though

N it was CNY theme for combat on Thursday! I wore the same cheongsam I bought last year, can hardly fit in it @@ how can I be gaining weight when I go to the gym almost everyday?? After the class we all indulged in baba’s home made cookies. hmmmmm, mayb tat’s the reason :-p

Initially i promised the gang to go McD together after the class, but the gals were going to celebrate xiao mei’s birthday, so had to put aeroplane again >___<

Happy Birthday Xiao Mei!

Then it was time to really prepare for cny, so i tried to tidy up my room on Saturday, spent the whole afternoon n i could onli finish 1/3 >___< I have officially outgrown my room, n i hav no idea how to fit my things in the room, need organizing ideas @@

At nite i went to the spring, took me 45 minutes to find a parking lot @@ was gonna meet cin at Kbox, but since i’m there, some last minute shopping!

shu uemura is opened!

Sunday morning went out with mum to shop for cny stuff, by the time i got home n got ready, i was already late for body jam >_<

It was a special day, Ming’s birthday was near n she asked us out for dinner at Jambu.

The environment is great ^^ waited a while for the food though

starter to munch on while waiting for the food

ming’s lamb chop

my beef burger

nana snapping her fish n chips

desert was great!

Baba had to leave early, n the 3 of us chatted until they were almost closing, but b4 we end the nite, there was the birthday cake of coz~

rather, the birthday “pie”

birthday gal n the “pie”

The pie was delicious, we were extremely full but still ate up half the pie ^^ Happy birthday Ming, dreams come true ya ^^

On Monday nite i skipped gym coz there was something important I need to do, buy wii, hoho~ It was raining heavily but tat din stopped us~

Satok Plaza, I haven’t been here in ages!

Did we used to get our old super nintendo here? I cant remember

After much negotiation we bought the black coloured wii for RM1450, comes with motion plus and 2 original game, extra set of black controller, and 15 games. You can get the white colour one for RM1200, without motion plus and the original games, but they give u 20 games instead. When we reach home it was already around 1030, nonetheless, we started to test out our new toy ^^

The thing I like about wii is, it’s a family type of game console, n they have all sorts of interesting games. Big nintendo fan here ^^

And it was the eve of cny eve. 2 days to cny and many people were on leave already, everyone was asking when i’ll be on leave, n they seem surprised when i say i’m not taking any leaves. I dun have much leaves left, must use them wisely :-p

Shuang was bek in Kuching with Sam, so i dated her for lunch, and the 3 of us went to brighton square for lunch

cute sam ^^

my lunch

After body jam tat nite we went out for dinner as it’s ming’s birthday (official day)

can u guess where tis place is?

We chatted till they were closing, they had so many food on the table when we were leaving, I guess they are having their pre-cny dinner already?

Well, then it’s cny eve, almost everyone’s on leave but i still have a full working day coz i need to save leave >__< but it wasn’t too bad, n i’m not the only one either :-p anyway, i’ll blog about the rest in a new post, dun wanna have another extra long post again, hoho.

Happy Chinese New Year! Have a prosperous n meaningful year ^^

Medan–Lake Toba–Singapore 12/1/11-17/1/11

2011-01-28T09:12:00.001-08:00

If you were in Kuching you would have known that KIA (Kuching International Airport) was closed down for almost 24 hours on 11th Jan 2011 due to an AirAsia plane skidded off the runway. Heard it was due to the heavy rain, but then, if the weather was really that bad, why did the pilot landed at all?? Okay, mayb accidents do happen, but y did they need 24 hours to clear the runway??? 24 hours, do you know how many flights were delayed? and KIA claims to be an international airport, can’t imagine how bad the situation could be if we really had any international flights. Alright, I think I should stop complaining about no International flights in KIA, I’m not sure if KIA could really handle it……

This took 24hours!

Well, if I wasn’t taking a flight on 12th Jan I probably won’t haven been so concerned. Talking about my flight on 12th, it was already retimed to start with, originally I was suppose to have a few hours between my flight from kch-sg and sg-medan, but due to the retime, I have only 1.5 hour between my flights, and the incident may cause even more delay than it already has! I was worried the whole day, and also very sick, nonetheless I packed my bags and hoped for the best.

I took half day leave the next day, and went to airport 2 hours b4 my flight so that I can get the front seat. I need to get off the plane fast so I dun get caught up in the queue during immigration clearance, then, mayb I could still catch the bus and dun hav to take a cab.

gate 9 super far @@

rain was getting smaller

It was my first time taking tiger so I wasn’t sure if they would help me arrange my seat, but thank god I was really lucky! Pauline was at the counter that day, so I checked in with her and ask if she could help me arrange my seat to the front rows. Come to think of it, I was really LUCKY, the plane skidding incident was the day b4 and din really effect my flight, got the front row seat as i wanted, the plane reach KIA on time, and landed at changi ahead schedule! I rushed to the immigration, even overtaking some of the passengers on the flight b4 us, and the immigration counter was clear! The bus to terminal 2 was already there when i went out the arrival hall, safely checked in the flight and even got time to have some food b4 getting on the plane~ law of attraction! YEAH!

snacks b4 the flight

My first JetStar Flight too

We reached Medan at around 8pm local time (Medan is 1 hour behind Msia), Dyna’s brother-in-law was already there, and i mean really THERE, inside the arrival hall, not outside, apparently he knows some ppl inside, and he can settle immigration clearance for us, we basically skipped the queue n walked rite out, amazing!

It was also raining in Medan, we went to the famous hawker street for dinner, I left my bag in the car so I din bring the camera with me, missed out on the photos of the food >____< The food was not bad actually, mostly fried stuff, and they have very different food, like fried frogs, soft shell turtle soup, lizard meat, etc, but I was sick so i din dare to eat too much. After dinner we went to check in our hotel. The hotel was My Dreams Hotel, but when we reach we juz saw My Hotel and wondered if we went to the correct hotel, only when we look closely we saw the “Dream”, haha.

"Dream” so small, lol

The lobby

computer for you to online

looking up

broachers

Ding at the reception

After checking in we went to our rooms at 9th floor

The room is not bad

first time see hotel slipper so good quality @@

they even provide you with a book to read, and it’s chinese!

I’m speechless, the hotel is juz too good! and it cost juz around RM108 per nite, really value for money!

After putting down our things we went to dyna’s house to visit her niece for a while b4 we go bek to the hotel again. I found that they also had satellite receiver on many of their houses, n the hotel too, a lot of tv channels, not like malaysia hotel :-p

The next day we checked out at around 9am and waited for Dyna to come fetch us.

Morning view

fresh flowers everywhere!

interesting~

Gaik fb-ing while waiting

Ding too~

Me snapping stuff

Irene too!

photo taking is the best way to kill time

Then it’s off to breakfast!

must be very famous

they have tis in Medan too!

it’s home made barley inside, creative!

group photo~

keuh tiaw with many ingredient!

crab meat!!

Dyna’s very cute niece

we all love her

but she doesn’t seem to love us as much ><

After breakfast we start the journey~ It’s approximately 4 hours drive from Medan to Lake Toba, but later we found tat it wasn’t as easy as we thought, the road connecting Medan and Lake Toba is busy and small, it’s almost impossible to reach in 4 hours…

Journey begins~

Pump petrol first, at Petronas!

Then it’s driving all the way, to me Medan seems like an endless city, all the way we still see a lot of shops n houses beside the road, unlike here, after 1 hour, no matter which direction ur driving, ur gonna see some tree n forest already. After few hours of driving, we stopped to have lunch.

KFC!

Hungry~

These are rice, not burger

Mocha float

After lunch it’s bek to the open road again. After a few more hours we finally can see the lake!

hi lake toba!

funny truck

the banner welcoming us

We reach the ferry terminal at Ajibata, the tiket counter was not opened yet, so we walked around while waiting for the counter to open.

time table

the fare

When the counter opens we quickly went to get the tickets, and after a while the ferry reached

When we were waiting for the ferry to arrive, there was some kids there asking money from us. I remember reading somewhere that giving money to kids will give them the wrong idea about money and don’t want to go school or work hard anymore. But while we were waiting for the cars to be unloaded from the ferry, a car stopped in front of us n a lady came out from the car, walked straight to the other side of the terminal, without noticing she dropped some money on the floor. We were juz standing there, thinking wat to do. The people next to us seems like noticed the money on the floor too, n it juz seems a pity if we let them take the money. So finally Dyna took the money and gave them to the children tat were asking money from us earlier, she even changed the money to smaller notes so they could divide among them, but they were still arguing when we were leaving.

Then, when our cars were in the ferry, some half naked boys came to us n ask us to throw coins into the water, say they would jump into the water n pick it up. We did threw our coins into the water n they jumped off the ferry to pick them up, but it juz felt kinda weird. It’s a weekday, why aren’t these children in school or anywhere studying, or learning, n waited in a jetty, asking money from tourist? I know tis happens everywhere, even in Malaysia, but I’m still heavy hearted thinking about it.

kids jumping off the ferry to pick up the coins

some even very young, n i feel he can barely swim…

Well, let’s not get too emotional here, when the ferry started to move the unrelated people went off, or rather, jumped off the ferry, and the 1 hour journey to samosir island began. nothing much to do, so we juz went out the car n take photos

The tuk tuk peninsular, our destination for the nite

When we finally reach Tomok the sky were getting dark, we proceeded to tuk tuk where most of the resorts are, we did make a booking but we decided to try our luck and see if we could find a better deal. From our readings before, a lot of people stayed at Samosir villa, so we decide to go take a look.

The place is really beautiful, we really like it a lot, so after some discussion and negotiation on the price, we settled down in the best rooms they had, VIP room, with incredible lake view, mini garden in front of the room, private living room, and bath tub, IDR380,000, which is about RM131 for 2, and including breakfast, pretty good deal for me. I felt as if I’m in Bali again, but rooms at that price range would not be as good.

siting area in front of the room

private living room

the bed

garden in front of the room (cant see the late yet)

After leaving out stuff in the room we went to the restaurant to get dinner. The seating area in front of the pool is really nice!

And dinner is served!

juice terung belanda

Nasi Campur (i think)

After dinner we were suppose to go bek to our rooms, take bath n sleep, but then, we all tot the nite is too good to be slept away, so we went bak to the seating area where we had dinner, and chatted while irene went around taking photos. Listening to the nice music they’re playing from the restaurant, enjoying the night breeze, now tat’s life, haha~

The onli bad thing was there’s a crowd of people next to us drinking and smoking, but still, I enjoyed my time ^^

Irene did mentioned something about watching sun rise the next morning, but I was coughing badly, so i totally ignored it :-p

The next day I woke up at about 7am local time, and took pictures of the surroundings, the view is great~

In front of our rooms

I wonder if anyone actually uses it @@

lake water is so clear!!

our room, front view

some of me~

and Ding~

Imagine walking down these stairs on ur wedding ^^

And we went to the same place again for breakfast, after breakfast we continued the photo taking while waiting for everyone to get ready, the place is juz too nice!

Finally we’re ready to go!

We decide to take the hotel staff's advise and start from the right side, no specific destination, juz planning to stop over whenever we see a nice view and take photos

the buffalo enjoying his mud bath

would hav been nice without the half naked man washing his motor :-p

And we stopped at the batak museum

They’ve got description in many languages

The performance area, but noone was around at the time

and of coz we took many photos here

After tat we continued the journey

The little stream on the far away hill

Coz we forgot to fill up the petrol before coming to the island, we don’t dare to go too far, so we headed bak to Tomok to do some shopping, but first, lunch ^^

teh botal, special tea in indonesia, not bad

indo mee with eggs, tomato, chili

fresh fish from the lake, taste good, doesn’t have the ‘mud taste’

And then it was shopping time! there were more stalls than i tot

the bracelets we bought, about 10k (RM3.5)

And each of us bought a t-shirt, i think it cost IDR20k,about RM7, a souvenir for the trip ^^

After shopping we decided to go bak to the hotel, change our clothes, and take a walk around, and on our way I spotted something very interesting

I remember at Bali some suspicious looking guy came n ask me weather I wanna buy mushroom too, he juz sounded very suspicious so i think it’s probably not something very good. I googled it and apparently it’s some kind of drug tat gives you hallucination, guess at places like this they’re not too strict on it??

Anyway, we rented a couple of motorbikes to explore the island, onli irene n ding can ride the motorbike, so dyna got a bicycle instead.

It was fun at first, but the road was too hilly for the bicycle, so dyna rode bek half way, and we spotted a fish farm tat we passed by earlier in the morning, so we went down to take some photos~

After tat we went bek to the hotel to get ready for dinner

such a pity we din get to swim in the pool coz we din bring any extra clothes, but still, we went in n take photo, haha

After the photo taking we went to the restaurant next door to have our dinner

We waited for very long for the food to arrive, was starving >___<

Kari Fish

some vege

The dishes were too salty, like most of the food we had in Medan, so after dinner we went bek to the hotel n ordered ourselves some dessert

And we enjoyed our last nite at lake toba, though, the table next to us was rather noisy >___< We turned in early coz we need to wake up early the next morning, need to catch the first ferry going over to Ajibata, so we asked the hotel people to help us prepare our breakfast at 6am, so we could catch the ferry at 7am.

The next morning we all woke up and got ready about the same time, Irene was feeling very sick so we rearranged the seat n let her sit beside the window, n i sat at the back. We manage to catch the first ferry to Ajibata, n on our way there, enjoy the nice sunrise

After that I basically sleep all the way through the journey, except of coz, when it was time for lunch ^^

We had nasi padang for lunch, how they operate is, they give u a dish of everything, n whatever dish that you don’t want, you juz put it aside, very different huh.

At around 12pm we finally reached Dyna’s house at Medan. We were planning to go for massage that afternoon and she already helped us booked a place at 2pm. So we just rested at her place and played with her cute niece. Then at around 130pm she took us to the massage centre.

There were a lot of people there, really a lot! The service there was not bad and it’s pretty cheap, for 2 hours of aromatic massage it cost around IDR145k, juz around RM50.

After massage Dyna brought us to buy the famous ambon and kuih lapis from Medan. Well, Kuching is very famous for kuih lapis too so I tot it’s pretty funny to buy kuih lapis bek to kuching, but the kuih lapis in Medan is salty instead of sweet, so it’s very different from kuching, n it taste pretty good, so i bought some kuih lapis and also some ambon bek. The tauke was very generous, when we say we wanna try, he juz took out a freshly baked ambon n kuih lapis, n cut it for us to try, even after each of us had 1 piece, he asked us to take more, n even more unbelievable, after we bought the cakes and paid, he asked us to take bek the “samples” we ate juz now, n there was basically at least half whole cake left! wah, first time see tauke so generous!

tis one tis one, dun go to wrong shop ya!

Ambon

worker making the ambon

After we bought our souvenirs (the cakes), dyna dropped us at a shopping centre near by while she send gaik to the airport and picks up her sister. So we went in and went straight to the supermarket!

Time spent in the shopping centre juz somehow passed much faster, before we know it it was time to go, dyna picked us up and we went to somewhere near the airport for dinner, according to her it’s batanist food.

"che it” “che ji” “lantai 2”, lol~

the red color source is a mixture of pig blood!

Finally it was time to leave Medan, at the Medan airport there will be people asking if you need services, you can give them your passport and check in details, and they will settle everything for you. The airport tax at Medan is IDR75k, much cheaper than Bali. If I’m coming alone I probably would rather queue coz I dun feel safe handing my passport to someone else, but since Dyna is here, I guess it’s ok. After he helped us settle everything we gave him IDR20k as tips. Then we juz walked in for custom clearance and it’s bye bye Medan~

don’t think i’ve seen a hand written boarding pass b4

And hello singapore! It’s already late when we reach sg, and we’re all tired, so we took a cab back to ang mo kio. I was going to spend the next day in sg n bek to kuching on Monday, ding will also be going to india on Monday, din really had anything planed the next day, so juz go with the flow~

The next morning we slept till late, by the time we wake up we were going for lunch rather than breakfast XD

Dated Irene for lunch together and ding took us to the famous chicken rice in sg, the queue was rather long, we waited outside for about half an hour

Food was good, worth the wait ^^

After dinner both ding n irene need to get bak to the office, so she dropped me at the newest shopping centre

juz walked around for a bit, after tat i headed to Marina bay sands. Haven’t been in sg for a while, so gonna take a look at the new landmarks. In case some of u wondering how to get there, juz take the circle line and get off at Promenade station, there’s a shuttle bus to the sands, or, u could walk there like me. Actually i din wanted to walk, i got lost and end up walking to the sands >___<

u know what is tis? tis is the parking spaces available in all the major buildings, when will msia hav tis??

There’s a shopping centre next to the hotel building but it’s not quite finished yet, still, i’m pretty impressed

the skating rink

some wishing well?

nice~

juz went in to take a look

risking my life taking tis photo eh

Need to go snap the big globe at universal studio, else it doesn’t look like i came singapore rite, hehe. By the time I reach vivo city it was already pass 5pm, gonna meet ding n the rest at 6pm, so i need to be fast. The train to sentosa located at 3rd floor, the ticket cost SGD3.

When I was leaving they were giving away free stuff, so i queued up and see was was inside the gift, some very good quality calenders and red packets, not bad. Wish i had more time to explore the place, but I’m already running late, so I rush to the MRT and took the train to commonwealth station to meet ding.

Albert n KK joined us for dinner, can’t recall y din i snap the food, probably was too hungry :-p

After dinner we went to chinatown, the lights were already up!

and we took a walk round the market, many ppl selling cny food, unlimited food testing~ had lots of fun

We said good bye to the guys after tis n ding n i went to holland village for some drinks

Had some german beer at overtime

Then went to the bar opposite for budwiser and victoria bitter

We had a good time chatting, would have been better if I wasn’t coughing all the while >___< din stayed for too long, both of us need to pack our bags.

Next day ding went to work for a while b4 going to the airport, n I slept till it’s almost time to go. Tumpang ding’s taxi to airport, hoho, how lucky am I. n also thanks to ding’s boss for treating us lunch ^^

Finally it was time to say good bye, ding say she’s gonna come kuching tis year and pay me a visit, well, i do hope so, hehe. Anyway, it was a great trip, although i was coughing all the way, but the best part was spending time with the gals. Let’s do it again ^^

Starting 2011

2011-01-20T09:06:00.001-08:00

Well, it’s almost the end of Jan, to date many things have happened, some good and some not so good…

Let me just start from new year’s eve, as I’ve promised, though, there’s nothing much to talk about

New year’s eve onli mum, yang n me at home having dinner, n mum can’t cook coz of her minor operation on the back, so i took them out for dinner at Delizze, new year eve mar, should hav a big meal, hehe.

They only have set meals and buffet for the nite, and the buffet was already full, so we took the set meal. It’s a bit pricy, think it’s 70+ per person, but the food is not bad, guess it’s quite reasonable for a 4 course meal. Must have been too hungry i forgot to snap the food, it was onli till desert tat i remembered i should hav snap the food, guess i havent been blogging for a while i dropped the habit already…

And after dinner it was time for new year countdown! I decided to wear the very SEXY blouse i bought from bangkok, havent been wearing sexy for a while, hoho, n i searched thru my wardrobe for skirt tat goes with it, n tat took some time, by the time i finish preparing, it was already way pass 10pm @_@

okay i know my room is messy, juz ignore tat :-p

n i know the mirror is dirty too, i’ll clean it up, soon :-p

I was suppose to meet up with Nic n Cin at President b4 going over to Paragon, but I was already late, n I need to meet up with Kel b4 tat too. So after I picked up Da I dropped her off at President and went to Kilkenny (previously Ipanema) to meet up with Kel, Jas and the rest, and after a few rounds of drinking game, left the place juz b4 count down with Kel to Paragon, and met up with Elva. The gang was already there, and the place was really FULL! We could hardly find a space on the dance floor. and met Fan and the guys there, really havent seen them in ages! When the clock strikes 12, the balloons fell all over our heads, ribbons where popping out everywhere and 2010 was officially HISTORY! Nic and the rest went bek to President while we stayed at Paragon, till it was almost time to close.

The first day of 2011 was all about JAM! I wanted to go for the combat class at 1230pm, but i totally overslept and woke up at around 12. So i took my sweet time to have some munch, watched a little tv, and went to meet up with the gang at Spring at around 230pm. I walked around a bit with Da, and had lunch(?) at the new restaurant, xian ding wei, which was juz next to the stage.

The food was not bad, but a bit pricy I’d say.

And Finally it was JAM TIME!!

It’s a rapture!

Just LOVE the new release!! Especially the hip hop block, it’s juz so cool! and I love the tracks from tis release, the music is juz GREAT!

And after JAM it’s dinner time!! (more awaited for than JAM, haha)

We went to Top Spot to have some seafood, the food was nice, though, i was bit sick n couldn’t really enjoy it, but the crab was really enormous!

Had lots of fun hanging around with the gang, at around 10 we went bek and i turned in early, getting ready for the next day!

I planned to join 2 classes the 2nd day, JAM was the 2nd class of the day, i skipped the 1st :-p

photos all looked very funny, haha~

Group Photo~

and after JAM we went to the food court for some food~

The kuih at nyonya corner really taste good!

I went shopping with Ming and bought a couple of new singlet and changed on the spot (in a changing room of coz!)

Fooling around while waiting~

Then it’s COMBAT time!

Love track 8 where it pushes u to give ur best at the last track, especially the part when Ba say “in the name of body combat!”, just gives me the Goosebumps!

Big group photo!

And you’ve guessed it, after combat it’s B-EAT time again~

This time we went to Sanga for Japanese food

I had the Sashimi Set

The boss was a fren of Ba and Ming, and he sent us a bowl of ice cream, FOC! love the green tea ice cream~ (was too excited over it and forgot to snap a photo :-p)

The next day was the first day of work for 2011, and I got my diary and calendar for 2011.

Do love the color

On Saturday I decided to go for a new hair-do, my usual saloon, Spingky Saloon, the usual hair-dresser, Ping, i told him i wanna keep my hair long, and i want a darker color tis time. He suggested i perm my hair, and helped me choose a dark red color, i usually listen to him, and as usual, i stayed there for more than 6 hours and was among the last to leave the saloon. Mui was with me there to straighten her hair, n she left much earlier than me.

When he was finally done, i went to BDC to meet my family for dinner, and by the time i reach home, immediately start preparing, as i promised Kel I’d go clubbing with her.

Love the hair color~

Actually I was coughing badly, and in fact it proved tat I should have stayed at home tat nite. But then, what done is done, no point to cry over spilt milk. I guess I was blur tat nite, and left my hang bag in the car, in between the car seat, exposed to the ill hearted robbers. And we totally did not notice it at all, Kel even sat down at the seat full of cracked glasses and it was only when she wanted to get her bag when she noticed it was gone, and only then I notice mine was gone too. We were a bit confused at the time, I ask Kel to sit bek in the car, n we went to the dump grounds near by to try n search for our bags, but it was in vain. So we went to the police and made a report.

When tat was done and after sending Kel bek home, it was already pass 4am, and I had to make phone calls to block my card (n there was problem with the RxB call center!!) By the time i got to sleep it was already about 5am. The next day I completely fell ill, and lay on bed the whole day.

Thanks to dad n avis for cleaning up the mess in the car n fixing the window~

Miraculously someone sent bek my atm card and driving license, the guy was an owner of a coffee shop in Padungan, someone found the cards n left it at the counter, and he stayed near by so he sent it bek to my house. My mum got the cards from him so i din get the chance to talk to him. But then, I was too weak to go out n look for my bag, and the next day I Mc-ed and stayed at home, laying on the bed the whole day again. Tuesday morning I dragged myself to work but decided to take the afternoon off, and went bek to bed again. I needed the rest coz I’ll be flying off to Medan on Wednesday, and the transfer time between my flights at Singapore was very tight, I’ll need to really rush to be in time. Gonna need all the energy I have.

Falling sick before a trip was really bad, and I basically cough throughout the whole trip, am still coughing now. Nonetheless it was a very enjoyable one, the best part of the trip was still being able to spend time with my frens tat I would not have the chance to do things together otherwise. I’ll blog about the Medan trip separately.

and so the first 2 weeks of the year is gone, gonna hav 2 dinners over the weekend and CNY is juz around the corner. Busy as always, will try to find time to blog as much as I can.

10 of ‘10

2010-12-30T07:29:00.001-08:00

Which should be read ten of ten, sounds catchy doesn’t it, hehe. Anyway, I haven been writing the whole year, thought it’d be a good time to start again, by listing down the top 10 things i did for the year, it is the end of the decade, and it juz seems proper to do a review, hehe. so here goes~

1. Joined the Organic Fasting Camp

This camps marks the one thing that I have always had close to my heart, the environment. I started to joined coz I tot it’d be nice since I havent been going to sibu in a long time (end up i went 3 times tis year), but surprisingly I found tat tis is something i wanna do continuously. Reminding myself from time to time what we can do for the environment, how the decisions we make, the food we eat can effect the environment, and how ignorant most people are. It’s still not too late, but I’m not sure how much we can do to help, all the more reminds me that I should enjoy before it’s too late! :-p

2nd Organic Fasting camp in YMCA Sibu

1st Organic Fasting Camp in Kuching

4th Organic Fating Camp in Sibu

2. Joined Level Up Fitness

I started going to gym end of 2009, originally wanted to look good for my bali trip, after tat I found it was so good, I wanted to continue, but my last gym juz couldn’t really motivate me. then early of the year I found LUF, where I spend most of my time at since then. Now gyming is an important part of my life, I’ve met so many new friends there, and some of them became my close friends. This is definitely one of the most important thing tat happened tis year ^^

New Year Theme Class

Brian & Mench @ LUF!

Shawn’s Body Jam @ LUF

Brian Jamming @ LUF

Body Jam Demo @ The Spring

And I can’t wait for the Relaunch at The Spring tis weekend!

3. Journey to Beijing & Inner Mongolia, China

It’s been 3 years in a row I travelled with Irene in July, and almost all of them were adventurous. Coincidently, all of them also involved going to high altitude areas and getting me freezing cold especially at nite. It’s summer in China, when the fields in inner mongolia was green, which makes it super nice, but beijing was terribly hot! Nonetheless, it was a very memorable trip, I’m missing the scenery already >___<

I love tis pic so much! it fits the words so nicely~

some of my fav pic from hulunbeier:

and some from beijing:

4. Open Water Diver License

I’m now proudly an open water diver ^^ The hardest part of the course was actually getting thru the swim test, coz i’m not a very good swimmer >__< but thank god I got thru it (barely) and I have to say, diving is an amazing experience!! The underwater is truly a wonderful place, and the trip to Semporna was already a great one by itself. Mabul island is so beautiful, it has officially replaced Redang and became the most beautiful island i’ve been to. I’ll try to utilize my license and dive at least once every year ^^

5. Eat . Shop . Talk @ Bangkok

The trip to Bangkok was a long awaited one, although I have been away from Kuching for too much by the time of the trip, and I was no longer excited about traveling, but I still enjoyed every second of it! We really did nothing but eat, shop and talk, and most of the time (and money) was spent on shopping! Bangkok reminds me so much of KL and Singapore, I din really feel I was at another country at all. One thing for sure, I’ll be bak again soon for my 2nd visit!!

Central World

The shopping queens

and I’ve been crowned ^^

No more shopping for the rest of the year! (2010 tat is :-p)

6. 2nd Visit to Bali

There’s juz something about Bali tat keeps bringing me bek, and I would go for the 3rd time again if i could find the time. My first time was juz too brief, it was better the 2nd time around, but there’s still a lot of places I’d like to go. Dolphin watching at Lovina was great, and i manage to suft (barely) at kuta, walking in kuta again feels good too. Bringing so many ppl around was hard, but glad tat everyone enjoyed the trip and had fun ^^

This feels just like Bali doesn’t it ^^

Showing off my nice dress, hehe

Banjar hot spring

Gitgit waterfall

Gunung Kawi

The memorial @ Kuta

Having dinner at Jimbaran

surfing @ kuta beach

7. Weddingsss

This is not an achievement but tis sure is a record, I’ve attended 11 weddings this year, 4 of those I was “Ji Mui” of the bride. 9 in Kuching, 1 in Klang and 1 in Taiping. I’m happy for them but i’m running out of dresses to wear @__@ (and thanks to xiao mei for borrowing me a couple of hers)

Ai Mian’s wedding and dinner @ Tian Ge

Ivy’s wedding dinner @ Banquet

Cousin’s wedding dinner @ Sarawak Club

Danny’s wedding dinner @ Tian Ge

Wee Ling’s wedding dinner @ Dong Guan

Amy’s wedding dinner @ Banquet

Babara’s wedding and dinner @ Four Points Hotel

Chow Ping’s wedding dinner @ Tian Ge

Lee Hua’s wedding and dinner @ Klang

Wen Chin & Wen Hue’s wedding and dinner @ Taiping

Hui Hui’s wedding dinner @ Banquet

8. Runway Modeling

Well, tis was not really runway modeling, it’s juz a makeup show by a makeup acedemy, and my fren asked me to help out with the modeling, it’s nothing much, but it’s still a nice experience. My first time was really bad, but got better the 2nd time around, still, a little dream come true~

Obviously I was super nervous!

Was much better the second time around, or mayb I’m juz better at being a devil? :-p

9. First High Rope Experience

I was interested but din really plan for it, and it totally came out of the blue after we postponed the 2nd fasting camp in Kuching. I din really tot too much about it, but i was really scared when i was up there, my legs were trembling terribly! Felt good when i finally did it though ^^

10. Left my laptop backpack in the taxi and lost all my data

This was a bad experience and I hope i learnt from it already. Well, the most valuable thing was not the laptop actually, but the data inside! all my writtings, pictures, videos, all gone! T___T and the laptop bag was a gift from cambodia, not to mention my external hard disk, which have my whole collection of movies and mp3s inside! tis was really a sad event, but i guess, everything has to start anew, and sometimes we need to lose something to realize what we really have.

My New Laptop, which is the same model as the old one

Well, i wanted to talk about work actually but it din get to go into the top 10 :-p I lead 4 projects simultaneously during the second half of the year, where all my trips were planned on, n i had a rough time trying to divide my time between work, gym, and trips (and I dun even have a boyfriend yet >___<) but work was going very well, i had a chance to meet with a lot of amazing people and travelled to sibu and penang.

And coz of work, the camp, and all the trips, I’ve taken more than 20 flights tis year, including 3 trips to sibu, 4 trips to penang, 1 trip to KL/Klang, 1 trip to china, 1 trip to bangkok, 1 trip to KK, and 1 tip to bali. So u can easily see y i’m not excited about it anymore :-p

Of coz, tat’s not all, next we have other stuffs tat din get to go on the top 10 list~ (which may be even longer than the top 10 list??? i hope not :-p)

My first RWMF! (Rainforest World Music Festival, if u dunno wat it means)

Sushi King Bonanza! (A MUST!)

Singing on stage (Wee’s wedding and my birthday)

Visit to Gunung Gading

Trekking to BBKK (Ban Buan Kukuot) Waterfall (juz love the view!!)

Hiking at Mt. Singai (just to the church though)

Day trip at Sg. Segong

Day trip to Sematan

Day trip to Lundu

Bro’s convo photo taking

And many gatherings and celebrations, meetings and parting~ (at least those with photos to remember by :-p)

Me & Doreen’s Birthday Celebration @ Wave Cafe

My birthday @ Delizze

Margaret’s birthday @ Platform

Ah fook’s all white birthday @ Platform

Guo Hao’s birthday @ Maurice

Justina’s surprise party @ Rajang Lobby Lounge

Yan Sin’s birthday @ Secret Sanctuary

Alice’s birthday @ Wave Cafe

Nicholas’s birthday @ Pinoy ihaw-ihaw

Yen Cin’s Birthday @ Barsaga (but where’s the birthday gal??)

Bro’s birthday @ OXO, Penang

Garce’s birthday @ Cheeze & Tea

Foh En’s birthday @ LUF

Shue Ling’s belated birthday @ Sakae Shushi, Penang

K Session @ KBOX

K Session @ Neway, Klang

K Session @ Maurice

Nigel’s Farewell @ Platform

Nigel’s Farewell pt 2 @ Riverside Majestic Hotel

Druz’s Farewell @ Hollywood Steamboat

Alex’s Farewell @ King’s Arm

Bernard’s Farewell @ Pizza Hut

Babara’s Hen’s Nite @ Junk

Buffet Lunch @ Raintree Restaurant

Jammers’ nite out @ Paragon

Chilling @ Winter Village

Christmas nite out @ Paragon

Xmas B-Eat @ Ba’s Place

Well, i think tat’s about all I have for 2010, it’s the eve of new year’s eve, I’ll juz blog about tomorrow in a new post, if i can :-p

Overall it’s been a wonderful year, probably except the fact tat I’m still single :-p but tat never stopped me from having fun and enjoying life, and it’s definitely better than rushing into any random relationship. I have to say life has been kind to me, and there’s still a lot of room for improvement of coz.

My new year resolution, as always, is to become a better person. In fact the other day I was thinking, I probably should try to do a few silly things next year and make a complete fool out of myself, tat would probably remind me not to think too big of myself, and never stop trying out new things in life.

Nothing is impossible, so never ever give up. Hopefully by the end of next year I would have more things to fill up the list, and, with a little bit of luck, someone special by my side to fill it up with me ^^

Happy New Year 2011 ^^

East Jawa Trip - concluded

2009-08-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know i should have posted tis like over a year ago, dragging tis for over a year is juz crazy!! but trust me, i really really wanna go bek to blogging again, but there's juz so much going on tat i hardly have any time to blog at all!! still, i'm, serious about going bek to blogging and i'm gonna start with where i left it, erm, briefly (coz i've forgotten most of it already!) anyway, here goes~

We woke up at 130am (serious!) and got ready to leave at 2, but when we were ready we couldn't find the driver anywhere. We kept looking and he finally showed up at 230, apparently he overslept, haha. so we started our journey and reach the foot hill at around 3am. A lot of people were there, mostly drivers like ours, waiting for their clients at the foothill, they started a small fire there, n we sticked with them for about half an hour coz it was SO COLD!!! seriously, we could hardly make ourselves move away from the fire, n I've already wore like 3 layers of jacket! DAMN COLD!! at 330 we juz couldn't wait anymore so we finally started the hike. The one thing tat i will probably remember for the rest of my life was the starry nite sky, it's the most amazing thing i've seen ever! there were so many stars! it's like u hardly see a space for 1mm! really really nice.

Hiking in pitch dark was fun actually, although it was kinda tough, but we made it to the peak after 1 hour or so. At the peak was a few guide, and some people waiting for the sunrise, and we were all wondering, wat's the blue thingy tat we can see?? so we started asking around, and they tell us we need to go all the way down to the sulfur mine to see it, but we were already all excited to see it from afar!!

can u see it? the blue light near the lake?

and we made our way down to the mine

NOT NEAR AT ALL

when we reach there it was already sunrise, and we couldn't see the blue flame anymore, so we took a close look at the sulfur mine, it was really interesting

and the lake was really beautiful!

posing~

on our way down we stopped at the canteen to get something to eat, coz we din eat anything at all! n the only thing they have was instant noodle, n tat's probably the best instant noodle we ever had!

the view was great on our way down!

the entrance

After we went back to the hotel we took out bath, n the hot water juz ran out when it's my turn! juz my luck! >__<>

strawberry flower

And after everyone done showering, the people there gave us a tour at their coffee processing factory.

they leave the coffee beans out in the sun for them to dry

separated by class

some machines to separate them

tis is a LUWAK!

and tis is kopi luwak before they are processed!

coffee beans b4 they are dried

they use tis to roast the coffee beans

beans are soaked

and dried

these are macademian nuts! love them ^^

more coffee beans processing

the process flow

and it's done!

guess wat are these?

it's baby carrot!

some nice flower~

After some strolling there we had to leave, need to get to surabaya before sunset, and it's at least 4 hours drive! The view was not as nice as from yogyakarta, n we were really tired, so basically we juz slept in the car :-p

We stopped half way to have our dinner, n it was the best food we had in days!

it's ginger inside, but it's nice

name of the restaurant, drop by if u happen to come here!

The driver sort of lost his way at surabaya, and cant find the hotel we wanna go to. so i think we spent about an hour juz wondering around the city. Surabaya is the 2nd largest city in jawa, so it's quite a big city actually. Finally we found our hotel for the nite, Ibis, and we manage to get a room at around RM130.

The room is not bad

After settling down we were extremely tired, so we asked for massage in our room to relief all our hiking in the morning ^^

The next morning we decided to walk around on our own and asked the driver to pick us up juz before our flight. so we explored the city a little, went to the local market, souvenir shop (tat took us some effort to find) and tried some local food. It was really fun.

Finally it was time to go bek, so we packed our stuff and the driver drove us to the airport. We had our lunch at the airport and surprisingly the food was great! and it's the best meal we had in whole east jawa!

As we're flying off to different destination, I said goodbye to beautiful East Jawa first. It was truly an amazing trip, and it's still the most beautiful place that i've been until today. I might juz go bek again someday, hoho~

East Jawa Trip - Day 4

2009-08-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

I was totally blur, n super cold when i woke up around 330am tat morning, I could hardly make myself to go wash up before going out. I wore 2 long sleeve and a wind breaker, with my scarf n hat n glove, really regret i din bring my wind breaker pants, i wore normal jeans n i was freezing when i step out of the room!

Shamron helped us to rent a jeep to get to the best viewing point for mount Bromo, The tip of Gunung Penanjakan. The jeep cost IDR 300,000 (RM107), it was a steep ride but it wasnt very far from the hotel, i was surprised tat there were so many jeeps along the way, there's a short walk upwards after the driver parked his jeep. A lot of shops at the side selling food, hats, scarf, etc. After the short walk i felt warmer, but when i reach the viewing point, I din felt cold at all, the place is CROWDED! I can hardly see anything but the crowd, but i made my way towards the front, n manage to get a few snaps. The view is juz too dreamy, I can hardly believe it even seeing it with my own eyes~

The crowd waiting for sun rise

almost~

can u see the settlements under the clouds?

Amazing... n tis was snaped using my phone!

Look at the crowd

sun rise~

me in the crowd

a clearer view

The entrance

Around 630am we moved down from Mt Penanjakan and start heading to Mt Bormo, tis time upclose~ On our way down there were a lot of ppl selling flowers and corns, if your planning to buy flowers it's cheaper here, u can bargain till 5k per bouquet.

The jeep brought us to a distance away from foot of Mt Bromo. As soon as we reach there some horseman started gathering around us and ask if we want a ride, a round trip cost IDR 125,000, I was too tired to bargain tat time, but actually i believe u can get a cheaper price if you bargain with them, on our way up I did hear some horseman offering their ride for IDR 40,000 per way. Anyway, u can choose to walk up by urself, but the place is quite dusty, and smelly too (coz of all the horses), riding the horse is much faster, n it's quite fun too. It's been ages since I last ride a horse, missed those days somehow, haha.

Mt Batuk, juz next to Mt Bromo

The crowd at the foot of Mt Bromo

start climbing!

long stairway up

Thr crater of Mt Bormo

Actually there's nothing much up there, but the view was great. Feel like we're somewhere in Mongolia or something, especially when ur riding accross the big dusty desert-like field. There's a temple near the foot of Mt Bromo, but it'll cost extra $$ if you want to get there by horse, and i'm not sure if any entrance fee is needed. We didn't went there, all of us are already starving!

Around 830am we went bek to cafe lave to have our buffet breakfast, included in the room rates.

taken juz outside of cafe lava

breakfast

The variety is quite limited, but still ok, juz plain water is not provided by the kitchen, u need to buy them for IDR 66,000 for 1.5L of mineral water.

After breakfast we took our bath, packed our things n got ready to check out and began another long journey to Ijen. Acording to Shamron the road to Ijen is quite bad, and the journey will take around 8 hours. I asked if it's gonna be as cold as Bromo, he said, almost the same, mayb colder, i ws freaking out already coz I heard they dun rent jackets like they do in Bromo, worried worried worried >_<" well, watever it is, we'll juz settle it when we get there, no point pondering about it now.....

After few hours of driving we were down from the mountain area and back to normal grounds, at noon we stopped by to hav lunch...

empty as usual...

sogem?? yuck.....

honey dew... but y they put condensed milk in everything??

mee soto, not bad.

Lunch cost IDR 132,000, around RM47, the food was not bad, but the drink..... I'd advise juz stick to ice jeruk.....

After lunch we continued our ride, n to our surprise, we saw beaches and the sea on our way to Ijen, I tot we were in the mainland, did expect tat. Anyway, the road to Ijen was really bad, it's almost like riding a horse... At the gates we paid IDR 100,000, I'm not really sure wat tat's for though...

At around 5pm we finally reached Catimor Homestay, there was a little fuss about our acoomodation there, but luckily in the end it was all sorted out, but the condition of the room was really bad... n the worst is, the heater in the bath room was broken! we asked the reception to give us another room but they say they were all fully booked, and they onli can let us use the bathroom for a while b4 they check in. Bad experience with the room, but honestly speaking, it's actually a nice place. Catimor is a coffee plantation, n besides coffee they also plant a lot of other stuff like strawberry, avocado, macadamian fruit, carrot, etc etc and there's a lot of nice flowers around. And did I mention it's COLD up there? i think slightly colder than our Cameron Highland. I was already worried about going to Ijen the next morning and started asking if they rent any jackets, well, obviously they juz took any jacket from dunno where and ask if we want them, but they were not wind breaker at all, so i rejected and deciede to risk it to see if i can bare the cold with just wat i have.

Catimor Homestay

Fat Papaya Tree

Nice Flower

Our Room

After our bath we ordered dinner, they have a buffet tat cost IDR 50,000 per person, and some ala-carte menu, well, the buffet menu doesnt seem very attractive, so we decided to order ala-carte instead, it's also much cheaper tat way.The kitchen say we have to wait till they gathered all the orders, well, we dun really hav any other choice, so we waited pathiently.

The water fountain, our table is juz beside tis

inside the comman room

The swimming pool, and the hot spring juz beside it

A funny thing is, we were all wearing long sleeve and freezing while waiting for dinner, the swimming pool is juz behind us, and the ang-mos were all wearing swimming trunks and enjoying themselves in the water, haha, wat a big contrast!

After wat seems like ages, our dinner is finally served!

The strawberry juice, made from fresh strawberry!

mee goreng

cap cai

nasi goreng

nasi goreng ayam

After dinner there was nothing much to do actually. So we asked Shamron about tomorrow's plan, and he said, we need to start going at 2am! why we hav to leave so early?? After a long conversation we finally understood tat there is some blue thingy we can onli see at nite and before sunrise, n we need at least an hour climb to get there. It really sounded interesting and I was really curious with wat we're about to see, so we went straight to bed and get ready to wake up really early tomorrow!

East Jawa Trip - Day 3

2009-07-31T22:26:00.001-07:00

We woke up 430am to get ready to check out, and had our breakfast while waiting for Shamron to arrive. Nasi goreng again~

We decided to drop by the famous Gunung Merapi before starting our long journey. The viewing spot seems to be some old housing area but was destroyed after the 2006 eruption. There's some shops there, probably selling souviniers and photos of the eruption, but they aren't open yet when we reach there. Well, the weather was nice but we wasn't having too much luck, a big chunck of cloud blocked the view and we couldn't see the top at all, I can imagine, it must magnificent to see Mt Merapi from there.... anyway, the view from the top was nice even thou we missed the view of the volcano.

The volcano is juz behind those clouds!

nice?

The view is great!

The lava went thru here n reach the botttom in juz 7 seconds!

The dried river

After Mt Merapi it's the begining of our long long journey to Mt Bromo, taking approximately 12 hours.... luckily there's some very nice view along the way~ we stoped by tis nice paddy field not far from Merapi

can you see Merapi at the back?

We passed by some very nice mountain plantation area(?) on our way, paid IDR 5,000 at the gates, guess the view alone was already worth it :-p

We stoped by half way for lunch, acording to the waitress their famous one is the grilled chicken, but we find tat the grilled fish was actually nicer. n the fresh cabbage they serve is really fresh!! The luch cost IDR 146,000, about RM 52.

It was already around 8pm when we finally reach Mt Bromo. We stayed at Cafe Lava, IDR 250,000, about RM89 for a double room, with hot water(very important) and buffet breakfast, the environment and the rooms are quite nice.

Well, I was freezing after i got out from the car, luckily they got heater in their dinning room, I'd stay there n not go out if I could, but our rooms are not connected, so we need to go out of the reception block n walk a short distance to our rooms. No kidding, it must be less than 10 degrees! so be prepared if ur planning to come here.

our room, look warm huh?

No heater in the room, but it's juz nice after u close the door n hide inside the thick blanket. After we leave our things in the room we went bak to the dinning room to hav our dinner, already starving especialy in tis cold weather...

Before dinner I went to buy a cap and scarf (IDR 50,000 after bargain) from the seller outside the hotel, luckily i brought my gloves. But tat's really not enough, we rent the wind breaker from the counter for IDR 20,000 per peice. I din bring mine since I'm juz gonna use it once, no point carrying tat heavy jacket for such a long way (but i was proven wrong later...)

Anyway, we finally settled down for dinner~ the food was not bad for me

Tis one very nice, i like the sauce very much!

Dinner cost IDR 110,000, about RM39. After dinner YitPong and the others went outside for photo shooting, the nite sky was simply amazing! but, I was freezing even with the wind breaker on, so i gave up within 5 minutes and went bek to the room alone to take my bath, n after my bath, i'm dun feel like going out at all, it's another early morning the next day!

East Jawa Trip - Day 2

2009-07-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

I woke up 4am n start preparing for the sunrise, sleepy, but excited! and I sadly found tat, I forgot to charge my handphone before I sleep!! T_T well, since I probably cant take any nicer pics than the DSLRs, I left my phone to charge in the room. At around 430am we went to collect our sunrise passes and a tourch light each at the reception, and the guide lead us to the entrance of the great temple, dark, but the temple was lighted with a few spot lights, so it was still very visible. The view at the top was simply amazing~ pictures speak loader than words, so here's some pics from YitPong n Irene~

We had a lot of fun taking pictures, hehe, and all the pictures taken here was damn nice!

Shamron was suppose to meet us at the reception at 7am, but we totally ignored the time n stayed there till around 7am, before we finally went bek to the hotel to hav our breakfast. After the buffet breakfast we went bek to our room to pack n said good-bye to the great borobudur~

buffet breakfast,juz so-so

A snap around the hotel

So we began our journey to Dieng Platuer, which was around 2 hours drive from borobudur. There's some pretty nice views along the way.

snaped tis while we stoped for toilet

seems tis is the gas tank tat the indos use, cute huh?

At the gates of Dieng we paid IDR 3,000 per person for entrance, and IDR 2,000 for the car, and shortly after the gate we reach our first destination, Telaga Warna. the entrance fee was IDR 7,000 per person, you can also hire a tour guide there if you want, but we decided to go by our own. It's actually quite cold up here, juz think cameron highlands in Malaysia :-p I was quite amazed by the view, the lake is really blue/green, cant really tell :-p

After another session of phtot shooting, we decided not to walk round the whole lake n headed to our next destination, the plateur! I was really excited to see lava~ well, I know it wasn't going to be real lava, still, I was lookign forward to it~

Wasn't really lava, but still, I was amazed. It was like water boiling all the time, u can even hear the sound. a little sulfur smell there, but not really strong.

Well, I spoted some really nice stalls with some nice accessories there, n they were selling rings n braclets made from a sort of metal (i forgot the name) which they claim doesn't turn black even when contact with sulfur (and it was proven to be true later). so Irene n I bought ourselves a couple of rings and braclet~

And while we were busy choosing the accessories, YitPong n Lim kept themselves busy too, hehe. They bought some fried tempei and fired potatos from the stalls there, n they really taste great!

Tempei goreng

Fried Potatos~

Next we went to the Arjuna temples, the entrance fee was IDR 20,000 per person (around RM7).

Before the starting trail

start walking!

The walk along the trail was quite enjoyable too, you can see a lot of flowers along the way, and the farmers working in the farm too.

bunch of potatos

nice flower

After a short walk we finally reach the Arjuna temples, which was not as great after prambanan and borobudur, but it was the serounding views tat impresses me.

After some photos we cotinued walking to the other side of the temple where Shamron will be waiting for us. and from far I spotted something tat got me all excited!

wat's tat???

SHEEP!!

cute~

And also some shotting arounds before we go bek to the city~

I like tis one~

And on our way down from Dieng, we stoped by at a watch tower we saw on our way up to snap some pics there

After we snaped the photos I was totally attracted by something really special, tis guy was selling some edelwise and vase, but wat amazes me was, the wood he used to crave the vase, was already "born" with stripes, dunno how to explain, look at the pic---->

I have never seen any wood as nice as tis! tis is realy amazing!! so I bought the vase and some coasters for IDR 20,000.

Then it was a long drive from Dieng back to yogjakarta city where we were going to spend the nite. Half way thru we stoped by a restaurant to hav lunch/high tea. The place was still ok, but as usual we were the onli customers, they serve fast food here, the food was juz ok.

tis plate and ice jeruk cost IDR 17,500

We manage to reach the Mendut temple, a short distance away from Borobudur before sunset, so we stoped by to visit it. The entrance fee was IDR 3,000 per person. There's some souvenier shops around there, so u can shop if you want, but remember to bargain.

Before we went in, a short visit to the toilet...

saw tis japanese monument, no idea wat it's for...

The mendut temple was a very large temple tat stood by it's own, there's a large bodhi tree beside it, a video crew was filming something there, but we din really mind them :-p

large bodhi tree

On our way to yogjakarta city, we saw mount Merapi from far~

It was already dark when we reach the city, we went to a quite famous spot in the city, alum-alum, to see the sultan's palace and the 2 famous trees. Acording to some old-folks tale, if u blind-fold ur eyes, stand some distance from the trees, turns 3 rounds and manages to walk thru between the trees, you'll hav good luck. well, it's not as easy as u think, we all failed....

There's some local stalls around there, so we tried the food (hungry.....)

The Hotel we were planning to stay was fully booked, so we found ourselves another hotel near the Malioboro street. Actually a lot of hotels over here if u dun mind the quality :-p we took a room for 4 tat cost IDR 290,000 (around RM 103.5) aircon room, included welcoming drink and breakfast for 4, u can online using the computer in the cafe too, not bad actually, but the room condition was not really good, n the attached bathroom was terrible >_<" but for tat price, it was already not bad.

The welcoming drink, choose from coffee or tea

The receipts for the day

After we took our bath we went for a walk around the Malioboro street. This is actually quite a famous street for tourist, u can find a lot of souviniers over here, and of coz, remember to bargain. However, the shops were already all closed when we got out... so we juz tried some local food stalls tat was still opened, walked around a bit, and went back to bed, Shamron will be there 530am the next day, so need to wake up at 430am!

East Jawa Trip - Day 1

2009-07-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

Finally finish uploading all the photos for the first day, haha. The trip was really great, the view was amazing, even the photos snaped by my camera phone was super nice, not to mention the shots from DSLR, made me tot about start plying DSLR myself. The photos i'm posting here are from my camera phone, the rest of the photos i'm gonna load them into my facebook album, i'll paste the link here after i finish uploading them, now i'm still gathering all the photos.

Things din really started very well, a week before my trip I received an sms from airasia that says my flight from surabay-JB and JB-KCH were both rescheduled. I was suppose to reach JB around 12pm and the flight to kch was 8pm, but after the rescheduling, i'll reach JB around 7pm and my flight to kch became 715pm, and tat was the last flight of the day, it was impossible for me to make it at all, so as a result airasia receive a call from a very unsatisfied customer and after 1 hour ++ of conversation with the customer service, they finally agreed to give me a credit sale for both the flights, but still I paid an extra RM165 to buy a new ticket from Surabaya-KL and KL-KCH, which the original was juz RM120+

Nonetheless, i began my trip as planed, taking the 640pm flight to Singapore. I managed to make it in time to check in after work. It was my first time on an international flight, and my first time to Changi Airport, alone too, so I was a bit worried.

Waiting @ Kuching Airport

The Plane is here~

And after the flight take off, i suddenly remembered I forgot to do a very important thing.... I withdraw the money from the bank, but i forgot to exchange it for Rupiah!!! too late T_T

Arrived @ Changi Airport

In the Arrival Hall

I decided to take the bus to Ang Mo Kio n directly go to Ding's house, I asked around for the bus station, n went down to the ground floor, which, after I found it, I remembered I dun hav any SGD with me at all, n i dun hav the ez link card too, so i asked around for the money changer again, went bek to where I was, n walked bek to the bus station again. The trip to Ang Mo Kio took around an hour, nothing much to do in the bus....

Luckily I still remeber how to get to Ding's place, well, I did stayed there for few days last year end, hehe. Chatted with Ding till almost 1am tat nite, sorry dear to disturb u again, hehe. But it was really nice getting together with u~ really missed the old days...

Initially Ding wanted to send us to the nearer MRT station on her way to work, but it was raining heavily tat morning, so she droped Irene n I at Ang Mo Kio MRT, we met with Lim at City Hall, n headed to Changi Airport.

Inside MRT

And finally we arrived at Changi Airport around 9am~

The long exculator

Terminal 3

Taking the train to T1

We meet YitPong there n checked in together

After checked in we went to Terminal 3 to take pictures again, I changed my money there, wasted around RM60-70 coz of my carelessness >_<" so, must remember to change ur $$ before going aboard ok? Then, it's off to Yogjakarta~

The pass n health declaration

We're here~

Jojakarta Airport

sterialize machine

And I was asked out of the queue for a tempreture check, so the group had to wait for me outside.

The driver, Shamron was already waiting outside for us to arrive. Irene found the package online, transport by APV (inclusive petrol & driver accomodation / meals) = IDR 3,400,000 for 6 days, which is around RM1200, the car can fit 5 ppl comfortably, the agency even will help u to book hotel n tickets, it's quite reasonable.

our car the first day

We were gonna chage to a newer car the next day, but actually tis car was not bad also. The driver took us to a nice restaurant near by for lunch.

The avocado juice i had was quite thin...

Actually picture taking are not allowed inside the restraunt, but if i din take them, u guys wont know how nice it is rite? :-p the environment there is really nice, too bad I cant say the same for the food. We ordered their set lunch, the total was IDR 174,000, around RM62 for 4 of us, a bit expensive, since it's an expensive restaurant obviously. We were the onli customer there, later throughout the trip i find it to be an odd phenomenon, there's a lot of nicely decorated restaurants around, but we were usually the onli customers, where did all the ppl go? how they manage to survive???

After lunch we went straight to Prambanan, a 1000++ years old temple which is built around the same time as borobudur. The entrance fee is IDR 90,000 per person, about RM32, there's welcoming drink over there, but we din had any since we juz had lunch.

This is a famous show for tourist, but we din stay to watch it

The smaller model

The aircon in the entrance hall was nice, n it's hot outside, but, we're not here to enjoy aircon! Luckily Irene brought an umbrella, but, we din use much of it after tis. It's a short walk from the entrance hall to the actual temple, I was really ecxited to see it!

me with the temple ^_^

The view at the temple was great! n when u actually walk into the temple, it feels kinda creepy, but the pictures there were all superb. There was more than juz temples inside, we found these dear on our way out, n there's a mesuem in there too, but we dun hav time to visit it >_<" spend too much time taking photos :-p

And I have to say, the souvenier sellers there are presistant! they even followed us all the way to our car. remeber to nego if u wanna buy anything, at least start with 1/3 of the price they offer. One more thing, the dirver doesnt pay for the parking fee, so we need to pay it ourselves, it's usually IDR1,000 OR IDR2,000, but for famous places like prambanan, the parking is IDR5,000, a bit more exp than others.

Initially we wanted to go Gunung Merapi after the Prambanan temples, but it was too late when we leave, so we decided to go hav the famous Suharti Fried Chicken at Yogjakarta city before we leave for Hotel Monohara at Borobudur.

ES=Ice

Es Kopyor, coconut with syrup, not so nice...

The food was not bad actually, u cant find it anywhere in Malaysia i think, like the cow skin n geduk(look like meat but doesnt taste like meat at all). The meal cost IDR 111,000, about RM40 for 4 person. Before we leave i went to the toilet, guess wat's it's called in indo?

It's about 2 hour's drive from yogjakarta city to Borobudur, was already dark when we reach there. Well, east jawa starts getting dark from 5pm...

We checked into Monohara Hotel, which is juz next to the Borobudur temples, it's IDR 450,000 for a double room, which is about RM160, included breakfast, day pass into the borobudur temple, n a free video show about the history of the temple. The welcoming drinks were already well laid there for us even before we finish check in. We also bought the sunrise passes for the next day, which is IDR 150,000 per person, about RM53, The guesses were required to gather there before 430am, so we asked for morning call at 345am.

Welcoming Drinks

Nice Flower~

Our Room

The ticket and the key
leaflets about the temples
I'm a millionare!! haha

After we take our baths we went out for a walk, n with hope to see the temple at nite. We were lucky enough to meet a worker there tat offered to bring us to a good view spot for the temple. I was truely amazed when i see the Borobudur temple!

After a lot of photo snapping at the temple, we went for the video session offered by the hotel. Actually u can watch it from the tv in the room too, but since they got it in wide screen, y waste it? hehe

But frankly, I was too tired n almost feel asleep half way. So immediately after the show I went bek to the room n get ready to wake up early next morning for the sunrise!

2009-07-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

Since I'm starting my Bromo trip tomorrow, guess I wont hav time to blog till I come bek, so better finish tis post today~

Ok, sat started with lunch at Jalan Song "6 happiness" (is tat the name?) with Tracy

And guess wat, I found the toast here too!! apparently they were the same with the one i had last sun!! so i had one more~ mice~

After lunch I went a little shopping for the things i need to bring along, my fav watson's of coz~ din go jogging coz it was late when i reach home :-p

Later tat nite, I prepared myself for a nite at Paragon, n a little surprise for someone~

Ta-da~ cute isn't it~ Happy Birthday Felix~ Hope u meet ur dream gal soon~ hehe~

The place blacked out around 1am, mayb we were having too much fun? we left 2 something after finishing all our drinks

Fell asleep as soon as i reach home, I still need to wake up early the next morning.....

So Sunday morning I woke around 715am, n waited for Margaret to come fetch me. Before begining my story, the pics first~

We had our breakfast at Batu Kawah n started our journey. Sulia drove n felt li ike watching initial D.... anyway, i tried to get some sleep in the car, but everyone was too talkative :-p rented a room at palm beach resort, RM60 for half day, but RM2 per person for the entrance, can refund RM4 for 1 room. After some rest in the room we started BBQ-ing. Some korean were beside us, n they seem really prepared for the BBQ, with kim-chi, veges n full set of tools for starting the fire.

We were really full after the BBQ, so went bek to the room to rest a while. Then, it's all the way to the beach~ the sun was still hot, but a bit better than mid-noon. We had a lot of fun at the beach, did a lot of silly stuff, look at the photos~ I juz LOVE my camera phone, it can do miracles~

We checked out at 530pm, margaret drove on our way bek, n i slept a while in the car. Guess wat we had for dinner? McD~ my fav fries~

After dinner I went home to take my bath, n after tat to Kado for another round of chit-chat, well, at least tat was wat we intended, but we were all exshauted, n too tired to talk >_<" we had something to eat anyway :-p

It was straight to bed when i reach home. wat a busy weekend.... n i havent packed my things!

well, I'm almost done with packing now, very excited with the trip, n really excited to see Ding tomorrow too~~~ Hope everything goes well~ probably wont be updating till i get bek, stay tuned for my Bromo trip, hehe~

2009-07-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

First of all, something cute (at least i think so), do u know wat is tis?

It's a very portable paper puncher~ cute isnt it? never seen any of these during our days. my sis bought it, reminds me of someone, haha

well, tuesday nite i went swimming with Margaret n liklik. Hiking n swimming, healthy isnt it :-p

After the swim we went 101, initially wanted to go tis new restaurant, but din go in a last

We went to Kado to get something to eat instead.

the wall deco

sofa area

spagetti

Beef Burger

Tom Yam fried rice

Margaret n LikLik

me n Margaret

The food was not bad, we ate n chatted till they close, haha.

Next, tis giant sour soursop~ i think it's more than 1kg. mangos n soursops? u must think my house is a big fruit farm, well, it's actually a small fruit farm, hehe

Then, on Wednesday, went out with Joanne to the Spring for a while. there was an exibition about Gandhi, Luther King n Ikeda.

I think it's good to have more exibitions like this, we need to be constantly reminded about the happenings around us, how ppl are fighting for peace, n all the sufferings tat we are unaware of. Truely pay my respect for these great people.

After tat went to Paragon trying to book the table for the coming Saturday. well, had a bit since we're there :-p

But things are not coming too well for Saturday, just hope things will go well...

2009-07-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last nite Tracy asked if I wanna go hiking with her to the oldest Indian Temple near Matang, since i had no plans n haven been hiking for quite some time, I agreed. Now tat i think about it, the last time i went hiking was at Mt Kinabalu! OMG, tat was almost a year ago!

Around 9am Tracy fetch me n we went to yeow kee (if not wrong) at 101 premier, there was so many ppl there! we waited almost 15 minutes for a table...

But the food there was quite nice, I ordered tis rice ball(?) from a cute little girl, it taste good~

And the toast is super nice! it was baked using chacoal, they cut open juz one piece of toast for kaya n butter, gotta try it if u're near by! seems like a nice breakfast huh~

So after the breakfast we began our journey~

The temple is at Mt Mike, go straight along the matang jaya road, n turn left after u see a small "Mt Mike" sign on the left, juz as u cross a bridge. The hike to the temple is about 1 hour, depends on you spead of coz. It's 2860m according to the sign at the entrance, it's not too steep, more of jungle trekking than hiking actually, haha.

The view along the way was great, it's really been quite some time since i was really in a green environment, the weather was juz nice too, juz after the rain, the sun was not too hot. Tracy picked up some "grass" n say it's their toy when she was small, but i really hav no memory seeing those anywhere, mayb times were different then :-p n we saw tis giant milipede!! really super duper big! too bad half of it was already hiding when i snap the pic...

When we reach the top we pray a bit at the temple and was bless(?) by the pastor(?) anyway, a little history about the temple, it was built in the 1860's when Sir Charles Brooke (yea, the white Rajah) decided to start a tea plantation there, and was rediscovered in 1967, now they are trying to renovate the temple. The temple is much much smaller n simpler than i tot, but, the new one, which is still under renovation, is going to be a great one, the cravings are really nice, but i heard they're short of budget, so no idea when it's gonna complete... the "pastor" came from Madras, India, really had a hard time trying to communicate with him...

Soon the sky came dark n seems like it was going to rain, so we quickly headed down, half way it rained a bit, but luckily not too heavy. After the hike Tracy n me went to e-mart, it was my frist time there~

Had our lunch there, n we shopped around a bit

Found these really cute slippers~

But I din buy any :-p n before we leave I bought some N51 mask for my Bromo trip, gotta take precaution...

2009-07-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

It's mango season~ seems to be durian season over there at west malaysia, but seen none here yet >_< well,before the durian arrive here at Kuching, I'll juz hav to bare with mangos for now~ the mango tree at my house seems to grab a lot of attention lately :-p

Izzit really so hard to find a job in Kuching? No comment there, but a few of my friends have left recently. Melinda went to JB last Friday, din get to take a final photo with her, but gonna find her when i stop over at JB after my Bromo trip next week~ Agnes also left for Mukah the same day, our final gathering at Habour last Wednesday~ wish the both of them best of luck!!

Went for belated Birthday celebration for Wee last Friday at Links Restaurant, Civic Centre.

It was my first time there, having dinner while looking at the Kuching night view was great, but it was raining heavily when we were there, n the thunder felt so near! However, having chinese food at such a romantic place spoiled it somehow... imagine candle light dinner for 2 while enjoying the Kuching nite view~ then again, I'll hav to find my plus one first... anyone interested to fill the vacancy? haha

Anyway, the food was really not bad, n the price was quite reasonable too

Crispy Mushroom

Mango Chicken

Fried Rice

Seafood Tau Fu

Yam Fish Fillet