Me and the World

I Love Fridays

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:07:00 +0000

The Head of 6th Form in my school dishes out these awesome cupcakes (with the help of some helpful kids) every Friday. Last week however, we had them on sale on Wednesday for a fund raising event. Will blog more about that later

Its so nice to have something to look forward to on Friday. I might be having a crappy day but then the cupcakes help make it all better. =D

Exploring the Unknown

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:15:00 +0000

One of the perks of being a photographer =D Thanks everyone for being so hospitable and taking instructions so well (lol that did not come out right). I had a good time filming you guys. Video will be up next Monday during assembly so watch out for that!

By the way, the girl's house has a really cool layout. They have this whole prison break thing going on, with the high ceilings and the railings. Their rooms are also very nicely decorated, a tad too pink but still nicely decorated. Perhaps I'll post some of those pictures up some other time.

Music from Heaven

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Last week, its was Music Week in my school and the school choir went on a tour around Seremban to bring music to primary school children. We sang pieces from famous broadway musicals like Mamma Mia, the Lion King and the Phantom of the Opera.

While the orchestra was playing a short recital, as usual with nothing else to do I skimmed the crowd of kids for photo ops. Then I spotted this one kid who was looking up at the sky whereas everyone else was looking at the performance in front of them. Music from heaven? Perhaps that's something we could ponder on. =D

Ban Sudprapai Coffee Shop, Khao San Road, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:23:00 +0000

During my last trip to Bangkok, I found this cute little shop along Khao San road. Its so small you can miss it very easily. The place is more of an art gallery/coffee shop kind of thing, where people can sip on a cuppa and enjoy the art of display.

The lady at the counter said that all the paintings were actually done by her friend, all original works. To me the pictures, cute as they are adds loads of character to the coffee shop which makes it stand out from the other shops.

And now the art. Don't care what the more 'sophisticated-artsy-people might say about it. I think this artist's work is pretty cool. *these pictures may not be reproduced or copied in anyway* The lady at the shop made this very clear when I was snapping away

Hahha, I think one day when I'm old have retired. I'll open a nice little coffee shop like this and have my lifetime storage of pictures hung all over the wall. Good idea don't you think?

Sabahan Durian

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Saw these at the side of the road. Sabahan Durian is rather interesting. They have this small tiny durian with really soft spikes, and rubbery softness/texture. The taste is sorta like those kampung durians. It was a cloudy morning too so the tone I got is interestingly different =D

Quickie: My Workspace

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:36:00 +0000

I spend loads of time sitting here, doing work......well most of the time =D

Quickie: These are good

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:59:00 +0000

*New segment! Don't have much time to post full length posts so I'll do these quick ones every now and then. -Stanley-

KTJ Mid-Autumn Festival

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Lol my dad was correcting me when I referred to the "Mid-Autumn Festival" as the "Mooncake Festival", the term that I have been using my entire life. He was going like 'Stanley, its MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL.....'

Its been a LONG time since I last held a lantern. Most of my mooncake festivals just past like that, perhaps I'll eat a mooncake or two (my aunt make these mind-blasting chendol jelly mooncakes).

Lanterns were provided on that night, awesome right! None of that oh-its-a-festival-lets-rip-people-off-by-charging-people-ridiculous-price-for-otherwise-cheap-stuff. I actually had that little tingly feeling looking at the lanterns. Its brings back loads of childhood memories.

Way back (Gosh I sound like an old man reminiscing his childhood) then when I was living in Subang Jaya every year there would be this big gathering thing where everyone living in Subang Jaya would go to that MPSJ field opposite Taipan and light lanterns. There were SO many lanterns around and people were lighting candles all over the places.

I can't recall much detail about the event but I remember having loads of fun. Being a Subang kid is not easy ok! There is thing where kids have pressure of doing really well in school, or it could just be me lol.

The pictures I took that night were pretty awesome too. Used the 1.4 lens and shot without flash. Hhaha people thought I was crazy to do that. Good thing the D90 can go up to ISO 1600 =D Discovering the manual white balance function recently was revolutionary for me. Now I have control on how 'yellow' my pictures look.

Just to sum it up, it was really fun after a crazy week at school. Hmm, I won't say that I'm at that 'stessed' point YET but still its nice to just chill with your friends and camwhore. School isn't ALL about studying for those alphabets. Till next time =D

*Oh yeah, really sorry for not shooting up posts as usual. Internet here is really crappy. Can't blame the school though. We have a few hundred students using the lines at the same time. And there's the stuff that holds a higher priority than blogging....haih, perhaps I'll try pre-posting for a whole year or something like that, lol!

Suan Lum Night Market, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:04:00 +0000

This place is the shiz! Awesome place to just get lost around. Heard that its probably not as good as the "other" famous weekend market but as that name suggests it opens only on the weekends =___=" so I had to give it a pass. But Suan Lum Night Market is still awesome too. Very easy to find. Its RIGHT next to the Lumpini Station.

A tip: Its a night market =D Yeah, so the best time to head there is well, during the night.

From Suan Lum

The thing about this place is there's just rows and rows to tiny shops where you can buy stuff that range from t-shirts with random quotes to tin sculptures to rad music stores that sell rad music that you're never heard before.

There is this big food court. Nice settings with the huge stage right in front with that random thai dude singing one of the local hits. Food was very mediocre though, and EXPENSIVE! Its a tourist attraction so its expected of them to milk every sen off our pockets.

The problem I had with this place though is that for a night market, this place closes down really early which is at 11 pm! I was expecting it to go on till 2 or 3 in the morning.

Ah, the place where I got these awesome shades.

And there was this place that sells music. The shops sells these awesome covers of mainstream songs, with it all pimped out in the jazz/acoustic way. Bought a bunch of cds. Has lotsa bossa nova tracks- that sorta music.

Mee Tuaran, Kota Kinabalu

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:28:00 +0000

I'm back here in school. Its been a hectic few days. Had a good holiday though, it was more of a "holiday" holiday rather than a 'holiday' holiday. Stayed mostly in the hotel chillaxing. We had a day trip to Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia.

The journey itself is really fun despite me sleeping through most of it. We were supposed to get up at 5 in the morning to rush to Mount Kinabalu to catch the sunrise. *sigh* What an epic fail that was. Haha we left 2 to 3 hours past our targeted time.

On the way, dad noticed along the road this one stall that was briming with people. Being the ever so curious Malaysians (the concept is that when there is a crowd somewhere *especially in the context of restaurants* its worth checking out) we stopped by.

Turned out to be Mee Tuaran! I read about it on some random blog and vaguely mentioned it to my dad the day before. The 'random' town that we stopped by is actually the little town of Tuaran. You'll pass by this town if you're making your way to Kinabalu Park.

You can actually find info on Tuaran Noodles on Wikipedia too.
Tuaran mee, literally known as 'noodle of Tuaran' is a famous hawker dish of Sabah. The noodles is specially made from batter of egg yolk and flour, which gives the aroma of egg when fried. Frying usually takes about 5-10 mins in high heat that leaves a texture of golden crust at the bottom of the noodles. Local vegetables such as sawi are added in during frying. Before serving, the dish usually garnished with slices of charseow, i.e. the Chinese sweetened roast pork, and fried egg rolls.

Perhaps I was really hungry, but I thought that the noodles were really good! Its like a hybrid of Pan Mee added with Wantan Mee added with Kolo Mee. The handmade noodles were very springy and nice to bite.

As you can see the store is packed to the brim. The boss had to clear a table where they used to cut vegetables just so that we would have a place to sit. So nice of them to do that.

Au Bon Pain, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Opposite the Grand Palace (Bangkok, Thailand) you'll find this very french styled cafe called Au Bon Pain. Apparently this place has branches all over the globe according to Google. I found concept rather interesting and the setup of the place was in stark contrast to the other asian-ny shops next to it (not that I have issues against asian looking shops, this cafe just stood out okay).

My dad's cup of coffee. We stopped by this cafe because the Grand Palace was not opened yet. Had my first taste of pretzels. I was kind of disappointed because pretzels are.......well.......just biscuits.

The entrance of the shop.

Seating area. The place has a very clean posh feel to it. Reminds me of the cafes in Paris.

The lady at the counter was very shy. But managed to sneak in a shot.

Check it out if you happen to be in the area. Definitely a 'tourist' thing to do but still its a nice place to just chill and let the time pass. That is what vacations are for right? =D Food is alright (has that standard 'cafe' quality), you'll more likely be impressed by the interior. But then I just had a few buns so perhaps there's more to the food.

Jettting off to Kota Kinabalu

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:49:00 +0000

Holidays here we come! Ok, I've been getting this alot where people go "Hei Stanley, you're always travelling all over the place ah!". I'm just really blessed this year to be given the opportunity to travel. Really, on normal times I very hardly ever travel.

This Raya season brings me to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and will be heading to Miri, Sawawak on Wednesday. Woke up at 5.30, those of you who know me will understand how HARD it is for me to get up at that time. I'm no morning person.

Took a van, yes a friggin' VAN to the airport. Mom bought loads of stuff to send back to relatives, hence the van. After something that seems like a century we're actually going to use KLIA! Dad decided to fly with MAS this time.

Its nice to have comfortable leg space once again and not having to run for your seats (though NOW air asia has fixed seats). We also get 'free' meals and drinks during the flight. I have to say MAS owns Airasia in this category. Well I guess you pay for what you get.

Having a really good rest here. But I have loads of school stuff on my list which I have yet to complete. There's research and studying to be done. Imagine, I have a Chemistry test the morning I get back to school next week! *sighs*

KTJ Mufti Day & IU Night

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Wow, I've been here at KTJ(Kolej Tuanku Jaafar) for a month now. Like I've said before things here are pretty awesome. Today dad came over to fetch me back for the Hari Raya holidays. We had this Parents-Teacher meeting going on so he got to meet all my teachers.

Test results were really satisfying. Haha, in normal circumstances I would be in lalaland jumping up and down. But, everyone here is doing really well too if not better. Still its nice seeing the fruits of your labour.

Housemates are an awesome bunch of people too. Adam, Ozzie, Arshad and Ryan (roommate) would just be in the room messing around. I was there when my roommate made his first cup noodles, such a proud moment.

Alright, lets reel back in to the title. Mufti Day and IU Night happened around two weeks ago. Mufti Day is just practically a day where everyone is SUPPOSED TO dress up according to the theme, which means no school uniform! IU Night is a performance thing based on this year's theme "something something Medievel something Reflections of the Past". It a mix of the old and new. Rather self explanatory so I think.

We get to wear 'medieval' themed clothes to class on this very special day.

See what I told you? Very medieval right...

Later, we had lunch as usual. Brought the camera along for fun. I heard that last year the cafeteria catered food according to the theme too. We had satay on that day. Hmm...

At night the whole school would gather at the hall for an expo kind of thing, with performances and speeches and exhibitions and stuff. The sketch was rather fun to watch. Taking pictures was not easy though. The ceiling is so high that the flash can't bounce properly. Gotta' experiment more on this. Still far from getting the hang of flash photography.

I will be leaving for Kota Kinabalu, Sabah tomorrow morning! And will head to Miri, Sarawak a few days later. Will be travelling a lot during the November period too so there's loads of stuff lining up. Plus, I have not finished posting about Bangkok yet. Till next time!

Updates about life

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Yes! I've finally figured out how to upload photographs while at school. Using Picasa now and it seems to work fine.

Life here at Kolej Tuanku Jaafar is pretty good. I might be getting the hang of it, and getting used to the sometimes hectic schedule (don't even get me started about Mondays). We had tests in the past two weeks. I'm off to a good start although I still marvel at how well 'that-certain-group-of-geniuses' do.

Few interesting events have happened like IU Night and House Singing, but I'll leave that to another day.

Now, about this picture. Its my favourite picture currently. I really like it taking into account how I came across this photo op. Remember that 'floating market tour'? Well, the reason why we had only an hour there is because they intend to jet us off to two other places (locations that I was previously unaware of).

Apparently, they had two other stops on their list which is the wood carving art centre and a place where you can ride elephants. Personally I thought it was a rip off so I just walked around the places to look for pictures.

At the elephant place, there was this little girl lazing away in a hut watching the world pass by. Lighting conditions were perfect with the contrast of the gentle light on her face and the darkened background.

Thanks for staying with me, more picture are on their way now that I've figured out the system. Until then, live long and prosper =D

A Quaint Little Noodle Shop

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Dad and I arrived early at the Grand Palace, before opening time so we were hunting around for breakfast. Directly opposite the Grand Palace there are these row of shops where you can buy stuff. Pretty ok prices, some actually beat the prices at Suan Lum Night Market.

Then we noticed this small little shop selling noodles. Its run a family, and you can see them running around getting taking orders and serving bowls of noodles. The setting is very old fashioned and its a stark comparison to their neighbours who have relatively modern set-ups.

This is probably the only time during my entire trip where I had to put on an extremely thick face. These people HATE to be photographed! I was walking around the shop snapping some pictures and the young lady snapped at me and asked me to sit down.

I did sit down but still went on snapping from my seat and running to certain vantage points to snap quick pictures when she is not looking (lol). That my friends is an example of things that I am willing to do for a photograph!

The food on the other hand is pretty good. Its the peppery-soup kind of style served with bee hoon noodles and fish balls. Portion is way too small for us Malaysian eaters. I think my dad finished his in a few bites.

Now here's 3 pictures with similar composition but different focal points.

The Grand Palace, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:16:00 +0000

The Grand Palace is one of the popular tourist attractions in Bangkok. So when I got there I saw what I expected to see, loads of Japanese tourists (lol, these people are EVERYWHERE I tell you). Got there early before opening time so the place was not very crowded until much later.

Its easy to get there. Just take the MRT to Hua Lom Pong station and a taxi straight to The Grand Palace. After what happened yesterday, I don't trust the tours anymore. Taxis are affordable in Bangkok so don't worry about the cost. Just be mindful when they offer flat rates to rip you off.

About the place, its grand. Not as grand as the Forbidden City in China but its way grand compared to my house. But for a huge crib this palace has a really small entrance. You'll have to check that out yourself because I did not get a picture of it.

I really like the details put into the architecture. Sure looks like lots of effort have been put into building this place. You'll see huge, massive structure covered with texture and carvings from head to toe.

A worker doing some maintenance work on some of the art.

Coincidentally a bunch of school children had a day trip to the Grand Palace. More photo op!

The Peanut Man

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Lets head back to Bangkok!

Well one of the things I did differently during this trip is to actually approach random people to get permission to photograph them, instead of the usual candid shots. It has paid off really well and this set of pictures are one of the more exceptional ones.

I spotted this man selling peanuts along the streets somewhere near the Grand Palace. Somehow there are people who just make nice photographs. This man has something interesting about his facial expressions. Smiley, slight cheekiness but the lines along his face shows the hardships he has faced. He was nice enough to allow me to photograph him. Bought some of his peanuts later to thank him.

2 weeks in KTJ

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Eyes bloodshot, broken limbs, brains splattered on the wall of my rat infested room. It reeks of a combination of urine and the coke that my roommate uses to get high. Fluorescent lights flicker in the 'Saw' movie style giving the room an eerie mood. That was my two weeks in KTJ.

If you have not figured it out, I'm kidding! Its been a really good two weeks and I'm really enjoying my time here at KTJ (Kolej Tuanku Jaafar) doing the Cambride A-levels program (doing Bio, Chem, Physics, Math, Thinking Skills). And that brings me to why I have not been updating this blog. Trust me, I have a very good reason.

You see.......they have this very strict policy on internet. So we need to send our laptops to the IT department for some pimping to do. I did that during the first Tuesday and collected the laptop the next day. Back at the house I still could not connect to the internet. Turns out that I have to register for a user account. Why the guy at the IT department did not tell me about that, I don't know why. Registered the next day but still could not use the internet.

That point I was already at the point of giving up. Asked Adam, who lives next door to help and he did something to my laptop and the internet works after that. Lesson learned? Should have asked the 'old boys' earlier.

Well my 2 weeks here have been really good. The seniors are a seriously awesome bunch of people. I can never fully express how thankful and grateful I am for the effort they put in to welcome us new students.

That was one of the reasons I was a little worried about when going to KTJ. Because if the people there are s***, I would be living with them for two years! But thank God that the people are awesome.

I think its largely due to the fact that 70% of the students here in the sixth form are scholars. You have the Bank Negara scholars, the Petronas scholars, the KTJ scholars and people like me- the FAMA (Father/Mather -lol-) scholars. So I guess with that you filter out most of the rich spoilt kids that people always associate with private schools.

Food is good. I think I had lamb 3 or 4 times last week. Oh, and we had steak for dinner. Seriously, for canteen food its really good compared to the standards set by other schools nationwide. I have no complaints so far. There were a few off days but generally I'm satisfied with the grub they're serving.

On to what happened in the past two weeks.

Imran house futsal match. Funny story. I've never played football in my life, perhaps once or twice in primary school. So when I heard about this thing going on I kind of like just decided to pass since I'll probably suck anyway.

5 minutes before it started, the house captain, Ucuk told me that EVERYONE is taking part and the teams have already been set. lol at that time I think I was probably the only one left at the house. Rush to the hall and found out my team is the first to go =_=

AY celebrating a goal. Cool dude!

Mr. Head Boy a.k.a. Jinho

I was blur for the first 5 to 10 minutes, trying to grasp the concept of the game. But listen to this, I actually had fun! There has to be something natural about boys kicking balls around lol.

Later that night we had "House Night" where we had a poolside partay. Got to know some of the seniors and juniors. Celebrated Mr Catto and Mr Moorthi's birthday.

This week we had 'O' Week, where the Upper 6's get to have fun "getting to know us" Lower 6's. We had this list of names where we had to get signatures from, which is the entire Upper 6. So most of them made us do stuff to get their signatures.

Then two days ago we had the "Oompa Loompa vs Human" game. Basically its a game which starts with a few Oompa Loompas infecting the Humans (who become an OL and infect other people too) and ultimately leaving a few survivors. To put it in even simpler words---> tag+resident evil

Yesterday, we had "Induction Night". Had this nice garden party in front of the 6th Form building. Then we Lower 6 students had to perform for our seniors. Had some funny sketches and songs. My group did a korean dance in drag. I hope that there won't be pictures circulating around! lol

You should check out their rendition of poker face. Adam (the guy on the stretcher) stole the show that night!

After that its pretty much just camwhoring...

KTJ just made me realise how fun school can be rather than just slugging your life away in a corner studying for those precious alphabets. Looking forward to get back to school but am happy here with my internet at home. Yay! I can use the internet at 1.48 am! =__="

Roadside Delicacy, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:10:00 +0000

Note: I'm very sorry for the lack of updates. It took forever to get my computer configured for the wifi internet access. Its been good here, great in fact. Will talk more about it in a post. One thing here is that everyone is freakingly smart and well rounded! In my intake most of the students are either Petronas/Bank Negara scholars. Feeling the pressure to perform so I'm trying my best to keep up.

One of the awesome things in Bangkok is that you’re very unlikely to stay hungry. Hawkers can be seen at every corner serving up dishes at relatively low prices. I really enjoyed this as I get to sample bits and pieces of food all over the place.

From my perspective, this whole ‘hawker’ thing is part of the Bangkok life style. Unlike Malaysia that has hawker stalls at certain concentrated spaces, Bangkok has hawkers all over the place. Dad pointed out that it could be one of the things that the royal family supports so that people would have job opportunities.

I remembered Ay pointing this out to me while I was planning my trip. She said something about how her kids would get their morning fix from the hawker stalls, specifically those selling satay-like (skewered) condiments. I did not have to bother looking out for these stalls because they were everywhere!

So there was these group of hawkers right opposite the hotel I was staying at (you’ll soon realize how everything is right opposite/next to/down the road to the hotel, lol). Not the ones from the previous post by the way. These ones are even closer to the hotel.

One of these guys was selling BBQ-ed items. I harassed him like a paparazzi for a good 10 minutes so I felt obliged to buy something. The food was really cheap, 5 bahts. So I just pointed at something and paid for it. It looked good so I never gave much thought about what it was.

Later when I got back to the hotel, I took one bite and found the texture to be rather chewy. It taste like chicken but it definitely wasn’t meat.

Few more bites later I concluded that it was chicken liver (?!!). I hate chicken liver.

However, it tastes rather decent for chicken liver. It doesn’t have that typical horrible chicken liver taste when you sink your teeth into it. Like I said the taste was decent, but the texture was just a little unusual for me so I did not finish it.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Fun fact: A James Bond film was shot here, thus making the 'floating market' synonymous with Bangkok. However, its 1 hour away from the city so its not exactly "in" Bangkok.

The phone rang, the time I set for the alarm to ring was at 5.30 am. On normal days I would snooze all the way till 10 am but today ain't like any other days. Bangkok has always been associated with the "floating market" as I wanted to head there as early as possible to catch it in the glorious morning light.

Bookings had already been made for the tour via the hotel last night. Since we paid quite a good deal of money already I do not want to miss the ride there! I will never be able to put down in words how hard it was for me to get my butt out of the bed at that time of the day. At certain day, that would be the time I go to sleep. Even 1 hour later, riding in the van I was still zombie-like.

I was told that the trip to the Damnoen Saduak would take 1 hour. But they did not tell me that the journey there would take 4 *********************** hours!!! We spend 3 hours zooming all around Bangkok town, fetching people and getting stuck in the famous Bangkok jam. We had to change vans 3 times at different checkpoints! By the time we reached there it was already 11 o'clock and the sun was high up in the sky.

The best part? We only had 1 hour. Because there were other stops that we had to make. Hence, I was not in my best mood when we got there. The photographs I took were a little off that day too. *sighs* I envisioned something different in mind, but did not get to execute it =(

Despite the starting of this journey, my dad managed to cool my head down a little so I can actually enjoy the rest of the journey. The van stopped at a small jetty, and we took a boat ride to the floating market.

The floating market itself is very vibrant and full of life. I could hear the chitter and chatter of words in every corner. Boats were floating everywhere as shoppers and peddlers do their shopping and peddling. Sounds of people bargaining rose like sweet symphony in the air.

=_=" In other words: THE PLACE WAS JAM PACKED WITH TOURISTS

Everyone on the tour took the 1/2 hour ride along the canal (or khlong) where we can actually got to buy things on the river. I had fun taking the ride. Photography was a challenge as I'm seated in a fixed position and things go by pretty fast so you need to be quick on your feet (metaphorically speaking).

I find it humorous how you need to complete you transaction in such a short time =D There's a sort of traffic along the canal so most of the time if the canal is full you need to be constantly moving. So you need to order, get your stuff, pay, and get your change in 10 seconds.

There were these coconut in marshmallow crepes that I bought which tasted really good. The boat was almost out of reach when I reached out for my change.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience. I wish I had more time to spend there! There is a food court which looked rather authentic but it was already time to go. 1 hour is way to short to spend at one place.

This was our first and last tour in Thailand. Dad and I cruised through Bangkok at our own pace in the next few days, and had such a great time. Stay tuned! This is just the morning of the second day.

Sacha's Hotel Uno, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Note: I'm not getting paid to write this. I wish! Hahaha....

Last week during my trip to Bangkok I stayed with my dad at this hotel at Sukhumvit Road. I'm very satisfied with my stay, in fact I think that its awesome. Its a boutique hotel so its small yet cozy and elegant.

I travel using the MRT very often so it was helpful that the train station AND the subway is just around the corner, shouldn't take more than a 5 minute walk. You have 7/11 opposite the hotel and a local convenience store. Dad insisted I buy stuff at the local store because its a few cents cheaper. (By the way, do you know Bangkok 7/11 stores do not sell slurpees?? Blasphemy!)

You have this department store right around the corner too called Robinsons where you can buy clothes and stuff. Its connected to Westin hotel where you can use their pool and gym for a price. Went there twice to keep off the holiday eating calories.

For those who are too lazy to walk to the MRT station/subway there's a tuk tuk to send you there for free. But trust me, walking is faster. On the way you'll pass stalls selling loads of food by the road. I sometimes grab something to much on the very short distance to the MRT station.

These sell for only 1 baht per piece! I paid 5 bahts and had more than enough to fill me up.

The MRT station is just down this road you can see a glimpse of it at the top corner of this photograph.

Few blocks away from the hotel, there's this little stall selling seriously tasty Pad Thai for 40 baht (thai food is not very cheap by the way, comparing to our hawker stalls here in Malaysia). I've tasted many plates of Pad Thai during my stay in Bangkok and this was the best for me. Its located next to a drain though but your nose will numb out to the smell after a while. (lol)

Back to the hotel, the receptionists are really friendly and speak good English. I normally run through the places I intend to visit with them before heading out just to double check the location. Many a time they would correct me and let me know the right way of getting there. So I never got lost during my stay! When they see me coming they would run to the doors to open it for me and even help press the elevator button.

By the way check out Hotels Combined. It helps you search for hotels at places you travel too, just key in the city/country and date/length of your stay and a bunch of recommendations will pop up.

After that you can fine tune your search at the toolbar on the left to search for specific hotels or adjust the details to suit your preferences. I've tried it out and search the rates on this hotel and its pretty close to the rate I paid for, cheaper in fact (Rm 150+ pernight) but I placed the booking date two months ahead. So perhaps that factors in for the quoted prices. (http://www.hotelscombined.com)

Now on to showing you the room I stayed in!

Located right next to the lift, how convenient (lol).

Workspace where I churned out those blog posts and finished Uncle James's homework. And awesome flat screen tv! You might notice the panel where you can plug your technology. Apparently you can even sync your computer with the tv. Did I mention that box has 84 channels?? With one dedicated to wrestling (lol).

Toilet is very nice and clean, and got huge mirror for vanity and small mirror with super zoom for super vanity. You'll be shocked by how much detail you can see in your face. There's this neat 'rain function' in the shower which I discovered on the last night (=__=").

There's just one other interesting feature to the toilet....

Peekaboo! (Yes, the the blinds on the left opens too revealing the shower)

Sacha's Hotel Uno
Official Site: http://www.hotel-uno.com/
28/19 Sukhumvit Soi 19
Sukhumvit Road
Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Fax : +662 651 2179

Kites and Sunglasses

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:44:00 +0000

Last Saturday the Youth Alive group from my church headed to Taman Layang-Layang (a.k.a. Metropolitan Park) to fly kites. Before heading there we built our kites in church. Uncle Mak was so nice to help teach us city raised kids how to make kites.

It was fun making it from scratch. Benji was my partner, good thing we made a functional looking kite in time. Made it all from scratch with bamboo, paper, glue (havent used this in YEARS), and the very irritating right-handed scissors. Fun fact: Stanley is left handed

When we got there, we attempted to fly our kites. The 20+ people there must be wondering why our 15+ bunch of youths have kites that don't fly up but rather in spiral circles. Such are the woes of city kids. Some of us have never flown let alone made a kite.

That's Uncle Mak in the middle holding the kites.

After we got tired attempting to fly our kites, most of us headed to the shady trees to watch the other people fly kites instead. Sue Jan made these seriously tasty KFC sandwiches. Gonna get me some KFC later to try making some at home!

There were also soft drinks to go around. These are such an awesome bunch of people to be around with. Throw in some food and drinks, everyone would be happily chatting away and having a good time.

Later, I took out the glasses I bought at the Suan Lum Night Market, Bangkok. There was this little shop in a quaint corner selling radical styled sunglasses. I actually bought 4 thinking of offering them up here on the blog to you guys but I changed my mind. I like them too much!

I had fun photographing these awesome bunch of people wearing these funky eyewears. You can really see their fun personality shine through these photographs. The light at that place was fantastic by the way. I really like how the pictures turned out.

Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:37:00 +0000

My dad and I chose a hotel on this stretch of road. I liked it because its very accessible. The MRT and subway is just down the road. Hotel is very nice too. Free wi-fi internet! Rooms are new and clean. TV has 84 channels 0__0 It was fun flipping through though. Do you know they have a channel dedicated to wrestling?!

The hotel is right next to Westin, Grande Sukhumvit which is on top of a departmental store called Robinsons. Can't get any more perfect? There is a 7/11 opposite my hotel. They even provide free tuk tuk rides to the station (which is very near and walkable too, 5 minutes tops).

For me Sukhumvit Road and the modern part of Bangkok is very much like Kuala Lumpur, only more well improved and on a bigger scale. So practically there were not many photo ops around in this area except for portraiture. For that afternoon I switched my camera to black and white mode.

We had lunch at Subway. Dad wants something familiar before diving into the street food (which can be lethal to weak stomachs) culinary scene of Bangkok. The lady who served us looked like she hates her job. =_="

I wanted my normal fix with crab meat with some beef of bacon but she said it was unavailable. So I picked tuna instead of crab meat to be mixed with the beef. But right after she scooped the tuna she put it into the oven. I called her, to the point that the farangs (thai for 'ang moh') behind me were staring but she ignored me...

On the brighter side, I like the fact that street food can be found all over the place. Walk, walk then nibble nibble then walk again. Ate some Pad Thai cooked by an old auntie right beside a giant sever (weird, it got less smelly day by day, I don't small a thing now!). Got me hooked! The noodles taste a little sweet, but I really like it. It's like they PIMPED out our Malaysian Char Koay Teow.

Another thing, I can't help being judgmental here. Every time I see an 'ang moh' guy with a thai girl my brain would scream "Slut!". Sights like these are common everywhere. Sometimes I would also stare at a person and wonder if he/she is a he/she.

I have to give props to the Thais for their very nicely planned MRT (mass rail transit) which is similar to Singapore's. The system is so easy to figure out, and it gets you from one place to another in relatively no time at all.Police are stationed at every entrance to do the whole airport security check thing.

Even during rush hour the train seem very capable of meeting the demands of transport. Oh, and I found out how cheap taxis are here in Bangkok! Price is about the same with the MRT, but roads have congestion.

There were many people who tried to scam us. Normally they would approach you and offer to take you to your destination for a flat rate. Word of advise: ALWAYS USE THE METER!! The proposed flat rates are normally 50% more than what you should be paying. We took the cab from the airport to the hotel and it cost only 300 bahts for a 1 hour ride. Most of the time within the city we could get to the place we want to go for a mere 50 baht (Rm 5).

Bangkok so far

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:58:00 +0000

Hello everyone! I've been in Bangkok for two days so far. Its 2 in the morning here and I've just got back an hour ago. Lol, I must blog as I felt like you guys have been out of the loop so here's an update on how things are going.

Bored in the airplane...

My breakfast at LCCT- Salmon and egg focacia

Bangkok Airport

The first day was very easy-going. We're staying in the Sukhumvit are which is very condensed and packed with expats but very accessible to the other parts of the city. They hotel that I'm staying at is really good, for 5000 bahts ++ we've got a good deal for 4 nights. Room is very clean, lah di dah....but most importantly it has free wi-fi! Will go into more details about this hotel later.

Bored in the taxi

Interesting story about the taxi. We were looking for a taxi from the airport to the hotel. The airport official taxis offered us 2000 baht. Dad decided to take a metered taxi instead. We ended up paying only 300++ baht. Big difference huh...

I visited all the major shopping malls here in Bangkok on the first day- MBK, Siam Paragon, and the ones next to it. Its wierd.....ALL their major shopping malls are next to each other. The malls here in Bangkok is not very different from the ones in KL, its just in a bigger scale I guess. And the food court is HUGE. You'll have a really good selection of food there.

Bored at the Skytrain trainstation

Today, I went to the Floating Market at Damnoen Saduak, the place where a scene from one of the bond films was shot. Very nice place but I had my issues with it, which I will elaborate about later. Hmm....today things did not turned out as planned but it surprised me in a nice way. Its nice when something unexpected just happens, in a good way of course.

Food has been pretty mediocre so far. Pad Thai by the street is really good though. But the 'thai' dinner I had at Suan Lum Night Bazaar left much to be desired. I have yet to try any GOOD thai food. The night market itself in happening. Big place although its smaller than Chatuchak. I won't be around during the weekends so this bazaar is an alternative.

Thats all for now guys. I'm getting REALLY sleepy! I have to get up again in a few hours to catch the Chao Phraya river in its morning glory. Or I might just decide to sleep in if I'm too tired. Goona watch G.I. Joe too at Siam Paragon Mall. Heard so much about their elaborate theater set up so we got tickets on Monday. The outside of the theater itself is AWESOME-ly decorated as if it was some posh area.

Live long and prosper!
Stanley

In the papers: Portraits of Bali

extreme.stanle@gmail.com (Stanley) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Do you have today's Star Newspaper? If you have it, turn to page 4 of the Ole BRATs pullout! You'll see my article there, "Portraits of Bali". (THANK YOU IVY FOR PUTTING THIS THROUGH!! =D)

Its a great feeling to see your work published in the newspaper. Imagine having your stuff printed on hundreds of thousands of pages and distributed throughout Malaysia!

I remember waking up today, and stopping by the petrol station on the way to church. As always I would buy a copy of the Star. Seriously, I do it every week the guy at the counter would say "Oh, beli Star yea!". Then he would usually pipe in with the promotion of the day. (Like buying two cans of Milo today will save you a dollar kind of thing)

Here's the article:

Portraits of Bali
by Stanley Liew

This set of photographs telle the story of my encounter in Bali, Indonesia. There was much that intrigued me on the island; from the beautiful sceneries to the food we ate. But it was the people that left a lasting impression on my mind.

This boy ran up to me while I was browsing through souvenir shops along Ubud. He was beckoning me to his mother's shop, so I went with him.

Enjoying the sunset on the beach as we watch fishing boats returning to shore with their catch.

A band entertaining the diners at Jimbaran Bay. They would move from table to table, singing and collecting tips afterwards.

This Balinese hawker sells kuih, or 'onde-onde'. Her bright, colourful dress and headgear attracted customers.

The man's demeanor is in stark contrast to the swinging holiday mood at Kuta Beach.

The architecture in Bali is intricate, and sometimes cheeky.

And speaking of BRATs, the August workshop is open for registration! The next BRATs workshop is in Seremban from August 22 to 25. If you're between 16 and 19, and thinks that you have what it takes to be a journalist, join this workshop.

You'll have a taste of journalism, and try reporting using various mediums including new media. From experience you'll do print, photography, video (yes, like AFC and Travel and Living.....we try at least), and even recently blogging and twittering.

Send in an essay in English, in about 1000 words, about yourself. Also send in your biodata with contact details and educational background. Participation fee is Rm120 but do not send in payment until your place have been conformed in the workshop.

E-mail them to brats@thestar.com.my by AUGUST 5. Mind the deadline people! You'll get acquainted with them during the workshop xP

*************************************

Well I attended the musical "Kaki Blue" today at KLPAC. Two BRATs alumni are involved just so you know (we rock xP), one of them is the lead and the other the chorus. I'll blog about KLPAC and Kaki Blue another time.

But one thing, that place is NICE! So scenic, and I love how textured everything is form the floor to the walls to the decor. And everything is lit with natural light so its really easy to take nice photographs.

Its 10.30pm already, just finished packing. Will be getting up at 6 tomorrow to leave for Bangkok! I'll be blogging from Bangkok too so do keep updated with this space. Lots of surprises in store for all of you so stay tuned.

Live long and prosper,
Stanley