ashlight's Lair

Back to werkk

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:11:00 +0000

Got called back to work much earlier than expected... haihhh

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:17:00 +0000

I just noticed there i have not posted anything in 2009!!! omg, shocking!! Wouldn't be surprised if someone thought i dropped dead while climbing Mount Kinabalu since the last post was about KK's training! LOL
yupssss, giant cobwebs around the Lair and everyone kept telling me to freaking update it already!!!! umm... maybe soon..

At the Batu Caves

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Paparazzi session with the monkeys. I have more Batu Caves' monkey pics than anything else :)

Went to Batu Caves this weekend to train for my Mount Kinabalu climb. Yeah, i'm gonna be climbing Mount KK. It was a crazy last minute dinner chat last month which turned into a real trip. Well, I do like being spontaneous :).

Every weekend is a training weekend - normally at Wangsa Hill (Ah Pak San) but Miew mentioned that i should train at Batu Caves too so i decided to checkit out.

Managed to climb the entire 272 steps in Batu Caves for 5 times while cam-whoring around the area.. hehehe... here are some of the pics:

The big bosses heading up. I climbed ALL that stairs FIVE times on Sat!!

My fav monkey pic! hello Mesmerising Eyes! With only my 18-55mm kit lens, i had to tip-toe REALLY near to the monkey to take any good shots. I was practically shoving the camera at the poor monkey :D

Quick shot of the cam-whores at work... hahahha

Another quick shot of LE dodging pigeons!! lol

Indian temple at Batu Caves

Inside Batu Caves

Phuket Trip - Island Snorkelling, Sea Canoeing etc.

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:05:00 +0000

This is soOOOoo overdue but here goes anyway. Was at Phuket for 6 days during Christmas hols. Went out for excursions and island hopping almost EVERY day, it was sooOOo much fun!!!

My favourite gotta be the Similan Island outing! I'm SOOO glad i went for it and i gotta thank one of the locals for highly recommending the island. Almost gave it a miss because of the long journey to get there. The jetty itself is 1.5 hours drive from Phuket and then another 1.5 hours speedboat ride to reach Similan Island which consists of 9 small islands scattered nearby.

Let's checkout the pics!

Similan Island excursion

My absolute favourite outing in this trip - an island-hopping day which includes Similan Island, Miang Island, Payu Island and Bangu Island.

Taken from longtail boat.. omg, the gorgeous clear water! I feel like packing up and running off to the island again! lol

I climbed up to Similan Island Viewpoint. This is the awesome view you can get from there.

And you get this view of another beach when you turn to the other side

Random shot taken while climbing up to the viewpoint.

.. and another

.. and yet another!

Crystal clear water at Similan Island *dreamy sigh*

Checkout that SPARKLING water

The white sandy beach of Similan Island. Notice the little people beside that one single rock on top? That's the viewpoint which will take about 10-15 mins climb :)

yay! I swam with the turtle! It was spotted near our boat when we stopped at a snorkelling site in Similan.

Snapped this photo before jumping in! It was awesome! Apparently not everyone get to see turtle at that spot so we were really lucky that day to have one swimming on the water surface with us!! On the surface ok!! how cool is that! Fed bananas to the turtle and it must be hungry to wrestle and tug the fruit out of our fingers. Eventhough it's not as HUGE as the giant turtle i saw in Perhentian's sea bed, this one was swimming on the surface with us!!

This is Haad Lek or Honeymoon Beach in Miang Island. There's a private bungalow belongs to a Thai Princess there and when she visits, the Island will have to be closed to tourists.

Love the islands and I'm SO going back here!!

Okay, the next batch of photos are from my James Bond Island + Sea Canoe Outing.

Sea Canoeing at Panak Island & Hong Island

yeah, I went sea-canoeing!! Paddled from the sea, passing through dark bat caves to gorgeous mangrove lagoon inside. We canoed out twice actually, at Panak Island and Hong Island but I can't remember which is which island from the pictures now - having posted this 6 months after the trip :P

You gotta lie down allllll the way to enter the cave!

Took this quick shot before I went horizontal like them

Without our torchlights and occasional camera flashes, it would be pitch black inside. Well, at least we can sit up here :)

Sleeping bats...watch out for bats dropping.. close yer mouth when looking up!!

Emerged from the cave to this gorgeous lagoon!

aaah, so calm and peaceful

Can see monkeys jumping around sometimes

Paddle paddle...

Mangroove tree at the lagoon

Canoeing back and out from the cave... i see the light!!

Out at the sea again. Canoeing to our boats to go off to James Bond Island.

James Bond Island

Our boat for the James Bond Island and Sea-Canoeing excursion

Longtail boat at James Bond Island

This is where James Bond movie was shot... wayyy back when Roger Moore was Bond

Phi Phi Island

Went to the famous Phi Phi Island too but i have very very few pics to show. Read the sidenote at the end of this post *sigh*

Loh Dalum at Phi Phi Island. Snorkelled here too and saw 3 HUGEEE giant squids swimming together here. Too bad i did not have waterproof camera at that time.

Maya Bay, where the film 'The Beach' was shot.

I love this Phuket trip to BITS!!

Sidenote: Just discovered that except the online pics i uploaded on Picasa, all my Phuket pics are GONE!! *burst into tears* I accidentally deleted them on my laptop when i needed hdd space a few weeks ago, thinking that i have another copy on my home desktop but apparently i did NOT copy them over!!! gahhh... Even use DiskInternals' Flash Recovery to recover my deleted pics but it has been overwritten.. sobs

Chiangmai Trip

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:48:00 +0000

So I've been chastized for not updating the Lair for AGES!! Been busy at work and when i'm not working, i go for vacations!! Went to Chiangmai and Phuket since my last post update.

And YES! I went to "Love At First Bite" which is known for their fabulous cheesecake and highly recommended by Ling, Matt and Egg. Managed to find the hidden place thanks for Ling's direction on his blog. All was fine until one part where he said, "go NORTH", huh?! i was halfway walking and i see that... ahh?? where is north?!?! I don't have a compass with me!! lol... it was a crossroad and my first instinct was to head up straight.. apparently that's not north! Finally found north on my third try..hahaha.. I tried their white chocolate cheesecake and chicken pie. I guess my expectation was way too high after hearing all the good stuff from friends. The cheesecake was good and decent. About the same standard as Secret Recipe cheesecake. Didn't bring my big cam out that day and all the photos are in my Dopod, which I lost on my way back from Phuket few weeks ago!

Gonna make this quick so let's go straight to the Chiangmai photos! :)

Ride this elephant for half an hour across the village. Won't say that it was a peaceful and relaxing ride since every step was like going over a huge speedbump! And of course, had to lookout for those tree branches since i was so high!

My sticker to Maetang Elephant Park for elephant riding and bamboo rafting.

Bamboo rafting down Maeteng River. After going for whitewater rafting, bamboo rafting felt like a sedated ride.

Lisu tribe village

Also went for ox-cart ride

Picture made of gemstones. Chiangmai is well-known for their umbrellas and gemstones :)

Handmade paper umbrella

Random shot at Orchid farm... yawn.. it's part of the tour or i wouldn't have bothered.

Nightmarket near Changklan Road

Tuk-tuk ride at night

Food in Chiangmai!!!

Saturday market outside this shopping mall.. err, forgot the name.. that's what i get for posting my November trip now!

Bug snack!! Silk worm, grasshopper, whirligs, bamboo worms, etc. I've eaten them ALL!! hahaha

The grasshoppers are crunchy! :P

I like the bamboo worm! Bought some back for colleagues to try!

Also ate this... looks like normal egg cooked in banana leave right? Well... this actually is...

Egg with Ants' Larvae!!! Pretty okay stuff once you got over the ick factor... i got this milk-like liquid squirting out when i bit on those ants larvae... kekeke

Okay, that's that for Chiangmai. It was a pleasant trip but between Chiangmai and Phuket, i definitely prefer Phuket!! Love all the island-hoppings!! Similan Island is absolutely GORGEOUS!! Will post the pics from Phuket soon! ;)

New PDAphone - HTC Touch

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 10:35:00 +0000

2nd generation HTC Touch - I got this Burgundy color! :)

Lost my Dopod 838Pro a week ago and i got myself a new HTC Touch (2nd generation), not to be mistaken with HTC Touch Dual! HTC Touch Dual comes with a slide-down numeric keypad and a smaller screen. Didn't like the reduced screen size because i read ebooks on my pdaphone. Can't have a small screen for that!

So i went for the new 2nd generation HTC Touch in which HTC has wisely doubled up both RAM and ROM specs and added built-in Wifi feature. Yes! The original HTC Touch (1st generation) does not have Wifi but have 3G! So they switched that in the 2nd generation, put in Wifi and stripped off 3G! WTH! oh well, i'd prefer to have Wifi than 3G anyway so it works for me.

Considered HTC Tytn II but except for the built-in GPS, the build and design is very much like my previous Dopod 838Pro. Nothing new there especially since i already have external GPS paired with my previous phone. I'm now reusing the GPS with HTC Touch.

Sleek and slim - side by side comparison with Motorola Razr v3 (right)

Gotta love the sleek and slim design! My bag is now so much lighter! :) oh, not forgetting the TouchFLO too! :)

My only complaint is that it is really SLOWWWW when i open my ebooks on IE!! urgghhhh!! Had to wait few seconds for every scroll, oMG! I can't read that way!! So now i have to chop off my books into parts, thus smaller file size, to be able to read smoothly. yerghhh!! Other applications and phone features are fine though. Sacrificed some performance for the slim design?! yeah, why not! hehehhe

Desktop Peek

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:56:00 +0000

Got tagged by slowcatchupkuan who wants to take a peek at my cluttered desktop. hmm... so checkit out below!

yeah i know, it's pretty old and i need to get a new one. :P Took the screenshot last nite so i didn't cheat ya.. there's even time there. :) Gotta say that this is not THAT messy, i've had worse! Happy to note that my work laptop is tidier than this home machine, really! :)

Got my usual 24x7 applications open - Azureus, mIRC, Yahoo, MSN etc. The browsers are showing Facebook (i was throwing sheeps, biting chumps and throwing bombs at people as usual.. keke) and Gmail. Of course, there are many TABS inside my browsers!! haha

I'm tagging:
Patrick Ling
Egg
Loon (who needs to update his blog more often!! :P)
Forestfyre
Annice

Summarized instruction: Take a screenshot of your desktop immediately after reading this and post it on your blog. Don't clean up any of the icons.. no cheating ok! Then tag the next 5 bloggers. That's it! :)

Stuff I gobbled up

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:16:00 +0000

Yet more pics from the Terengganu trip! These are some of the food i captured on camera before gobbling it up!! Quite conspicuous lugging the big cam everywhere so i only bring it out occasionally.

Frankly i don't really know what this is. It's not lobster but probably a branch of lobster/prawn family. So freaking yummy!!!

Look like ebiko

Sotong bakar (grilled squids)... *drool*

That's the Garbage Bin drink on the right.. A layer of dragonfruit juice and a layer of mango juice with watermelon and laici on top for the complete rubbish effect.. haha.. On the left is lemon + apple juice with asam.

The purple drink is called the Amber Chia drink. If i remember correctly, it's blackcurrent and dragonfruit mix topped with laici and blackcurrent. On the right is a mix of kiwi and erm... gosh, i forgot.. that's what i get for procrastinating and posting this a MONTH after i've been back. :P

Anyway, we went the shop (it's a shop with no signboard opposite The Store in Chinatown) almost every night to try a new drink. The guy also made a few not-in-the-menu drinks in for us guinea pigs to try and made us guess the fruits in the mixture. Good thing that our stomach could handle all those fruit mixture.. :)

Nasi Dagang with ikan tongkol! yeah, i try to eat all the 'nasi' whenever i'm in Terengganu. Stuff like Nasi Dagang, Nasi Minyak, Nasi Kuning.. haha.. don't get those much in KL.

Fried ice-cream... Not a specialty there but something i came across and ordered. Not that good. I've tasted better ones.

Food aside, i have to post this.. haha.. took this shot from a moving car. Wow, they decorated the bus like a tradisional malay house!

Wood on the outside. Batik decoration on the roof inside... hehh

I was told that it's for tourists to hop in for a small tour around town for free. Nice :)

At the swamp river

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:37:00 +0000

Ibai's swamp river

More pics from my Terengganu trip. Went to the driving range in Ibai's Tuanku Mizan Golf & Country Club with both my sis and brother-in-law who came back for a hometown visit from Shanghai.

Golf is SO not my thing!!! Got bored after a dozen pitches.. blerghh.

Lucky for me, there's a swamp river beside the driving range. Spent half the time shooting there instead... hehh

No adventure, no thrill. Not my kind of sport - for now :P

... decided to take a walk and checkout the swamp river beside the driving range.

Ooo.. got fish around the riverbank

Crab hole.. hmm.. got crab?

oh yeah, lotsa tiny crabs.. what fun!

Here's another coming out from the hole

And it went back in when i put the cam closer.. ishh

It's so tiny i had to push the camera almost to the ground for these shots! No plans for telephoto lens though. Definitely too heavy for me. :P

Come out and play!

There are 6 fishes in this pic. Can you spot them all? :)

That's the plank i perched on while taking the pics above. Not that easy okay! Those fish and crabs didn't come out and just pose for the cam! The waiting game was quite fun though.. very calm and peaceful there and i had the entire place to myself! :)

Birds' Nest House Visit

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:35:00 +0000

Visited the swiflets' house to harvest a few nests when i was back in my hometown at Kuala Terengganu. okay that was like.. 3 weeks ago! In case you're wondering, swiflet is a species of bird which produces the edible bird's nest - a Chinese delicacy. Pretty good stuff if you don't think of the fact that the nests are made from the bird's saliva!! kekeke

This is the actual nest from the birdhouse - complete with feathers!! Swiflet's nest from the birdhouse are said to be much cleaner than the ones from cave

A fallen swiflet - this bird was slumped on the floor when we were going up to the birdhouse. Took it in my hand for pics and put the poor bird back where it's safe :)

Like a cave, the bird's natural habitat, it's pitch dark inside with a lot of bird's dropping! Euw, so smelly! We had to wear face mask and use this makeshift lamp whenever we go in to harvest the nests.

Gotta bring torchlights too! The swiftlets normally fly out and get back to their nests late in the evening, but there were quite a few hanging around when we went up during the midday

yeah, those white thingies are the nests!

Check if there's any egg or babies inside before harvesting the nest.

okay, time to harvest if it's clear

A baby swiftlet in the nest... probably newly hatched... geli lah.. haha

One of us accidentally harvested a nest with eggs inside! yikes!! We then put the eggs back in some other nest... hehehe

One of the many speakers that projects bird-like sound to attract swiflets into the birdhouse.

The nests we collected that day

Let's clean them and make some bird nest's soup!! Soak in water and pick out the feathers with this surgery-like tool... a freaking tedious process for sure!!

Especially those tiny, fine feathers!!! gosh, I have no patience nor the eyes (yeah, need good eyes for those tiny specs of feathers) for these!! My sis and the maid did it... nice and clean. Ready to be dumped into soup and eat! yumyum! :)

Still have a bunch of hometown pics. Will be posting more soon. They're all over my harddrive! :D

Pulau Perhentian Trip for PIC 2007

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Fishing village in Perhentian Kecil

The wave-less Teluk Keke, Pulau Perhentian Besar - where our campsite was located... oops, right side seem to have been cut off here. Maximize your window and see the pic HERE

okay, here are the belated pics from Perhentian Island Challenge (PIC)! Had soOooo much fun snorkelling and running around taking pics! Didn't have an underwater case for my cam so no underwater pics!

Anyway, i saw a mid-size shark and a HUGEEEEEE turtle!! As big as ME!!! And that's HUGEEEEE!!! err.. the turtle that is.. not me.. hahahha

Okaydoks, let's start the photo journey here. Brace your fingers!! Lotsa scrolling ahead!! :)

Taken at 3am.. the convoy of 8 coaches started off from KL at 12am.. only to reach KT at 10am!! Too many stops in between and the drivers did not speed since there were many JPJ checks after the Bukit Gantang tragic incident.

Breakfast at Kuala Terengganu. The one after the fried beehun is the famous Terengganu's Nasi Dagang, wrapped in banana leaf!! yumyum!

I was so happily eating that i finished mine and forgot to take a snapshot until E asked, "eh, you don't wanna take picture ah??".. haha. So this is E's half-eaten Nasi Dagang.

Our gift bag with a T-shirt and a few other small stuff (pen, keychain, sticker, etc.) from the Terengganu State Tourism.

The convoy of 8 coaches got police escort (complete with sirens and all!) from KT alllllllll the way to Kuala Besut jetty!! My bus was leading the pack. The 1.5 hour journey became 2 hours cause the police drove so damn slow.. as if we were on a parade or something!! And they drove in the middle like they own the road!! haha

And they waved (told you it's like a parade!) and made cars stop for us... even when the cars were at the OTHER side of the road! Felt like royalty.. hahaha

And we could drive on even when the traffic light was RED! All the cars had to move during red light too, just to make way for us.

Got our racekit at Bubu Resort's office in Kuala Besut.

Dumped all our baggage while waiting. yeah, we reused most of the BUM doorgifts! The BUM sling bags and shoe bag can be seen here.. hehh

Our speedboat moving out from the jetty to Perhentian Island... woohoo!

One of 2 different beaches near the campsite. The other beach can be seen on top of this post - 2nd pic from top.

Or like this :) See our campsite banner on the right.... oops, pic got cut off on the right again. Maximize your window and see pic HERE

Main 'entrance' to our campsite at Teluk Keke, Perhentian Besar!!

Quick shot of the toilet facilities at our campsite.. not bad for a camping trip eh... hehe

104 - my camp :)

Messy camp pic taken on the last day. The blue mat, tent and sleeping bags were supplied by PIC organisers. We used the sleeping bag as pillows since it was not that cold at night.

Teluk Keke, view from the campsite

My Speedo mask and snorkel.. ready for cool sightings in the ocean!

Only to discover that the water was sooOOoo shallow!! huh?!! how to snorkel???!! Just walk around, look down and you can see them all!!

Corals in shallow water at our beachfront

Definitely nowhere near as nice as the snorkelling sites we went by boat but it was cool to be able to walk a few steps from our camp and see this! :)

Swaying soft coral

Squirting sea cucumber... what were you thinking?!?!? LOL

Tug of war in the evening?

Nah, they were helping the organiser to set up the rope course which will be used by the Elite category racers.

Big crab hiding under the coconut, seen during our nightwalk to Abdul Chalet beach

Morning shot before boarding a boat which will bring us to the race's starting point in Perhentian Kecil

Perhentian Kecil

woahh... lotsa small fishes under the Perhentian Kecil jetty!!

And got a shot of this sword fish from there too. Swam with a lot of them during our snorkelling trips! No worries, they won't poke you with the sharp thingy in front :)

PIC banner at the stage where the VIPs gave speeches and cut the ribbons to mark the opening ceremony of PIC 2007.

And revealed the race course map!! This for Novice category. Round the small island!

Race course for Elite category. Gotta kayak across to Perhentian Besar and round BOTH islands!! *faint dead*

The Novice racers warming up

Readyyyy... set.... GO!! Flag off for Novice racers!

Elite racers.. all very fit lah.. They were flagged off half an hour after the Novice racers.

okay so how come i was still at the starting point half an hour later eh?? Coz when we left our campsite at Perhentian Besar to Perhentian Kecil, i decided to take pics and brought my camera along. There was nowhere to put the camera when the race started, with our campsite across the ocean, and it was too freaking huge and heavy to lug along the entire small island in which we had to go into the water at certain place too.. hmm... soooo...

... I roamed around with the cam and chilled out at the village with a glass of lime juice... hehehe

Local kids were tugging my shirt and asking me to photograph them. There were 3 kids and the fourth rushed in with his plastic fan when i clicked on the shutter.. oops... If only my kit lens can do f2.8. Btw, this was taken at the fisherman village (they have shops and school there too!). Just next to the main Perhentian Kecil jetty.

Swing tied to a tree beside the beach for locals to chill out with their babies

... like this!! haha.. Enjoy the sea breeze! :D

Beach next to the fishing village. Lotsa small boats around.

The sand in Perhentian Kecil beaches are finer as compared to Perhentian Besar but i didn't see any corals here.

Another half an hour later, a few Novice Male racers started to arrive at the finishing line. They took only ONE HOUR to round the entire island!! Holy smokes!! And my buddies took 4 hours!!! kekeke

The last 'Swim with Tube' water obstacle course for Novice before running along the beach to the finishing line.

The winners of Novice Male category post for my camera. No. 181 was the 1st place winner, allll the way from Ghana, finishing the course in 1 hour 6 mins!!!

21 Novice Male racers arrived and still no sign of the girls... until this lady from Pacemaker. She was the first to arrive the finishing line for Novice Woman category in 1 hour 41 mins!

The 1st Elite team arrived in 3 hours 1 minute (woah, you've seen their race course map and that's hardcore!) and still no sign of my buddies who were doing the Novice course.. hehehhee

Finally arrived! Woohoo, time to take a boat out for snorkelling!!

Took 30 mins boat ride to Pulau Rawa! RM40 per person. Covered 3 snorkelling sites. Two sites around Pulau Rawa and one near the Lighthouse. Nice corals and swam with the fishes on a hot sunny afternoon! Very nice!!!

All decked up in PIC T-shirt for closing ceremony at night. Look closely and see the snorkel mask print on our faces! keke

Cultural dance at night. More VIPs came for the prize giving and closing ceremony.

PIC 2007 ended with a 15 mins (i think!) firework display! Crappy handshot at a bad location. By the time i got to a better location, it was too smoky for pics. Anyway, i normally watch fireworks from far and this time it was right on top of our heads!! Felt like raining fireworks... haha.. a nice touch to the closing ceremony :)

No pics for the next morning excursion cause we took a boat out without my camera... felt so light!! haha... Went to Long Beach in Perhentian Kecil - a different side of the island where Bubu Island Resort is located. I bought a hammock there! Then went to a few more snorkelling sites:

@ Shark Point - Nice corals and rock formation here. Quite a few small rock cave underwater that you can peek into and be greeted with sea creatures inside. And this was where i saw shark and tried to follow it around!! But damn, the shark was fast!! Surfaced and hollered for KJ but he was nowhere in sight. Went down again and the shark was already so far!! Tried to catch up but lost it pretty soon. KJ was so stumped that he didn't see it!! haha

@ Can't-Remember-Name-Site - Went to this other site to hunt for more sharks but didn't see any there. Nice corals and colorful fish tho! :)

@ Turtle Point - This is where we saw the HUGEEE turtle!! Right after our boat stopped at that location, one of the local snorkeller shouted, "Ade penyu!! (Got turtle!)". So we quickly put on our fins and jumped in. Woohoo, the turtle was indeed crawling slowly at the sea bottom. If there's no turtle then there's really nothing much to see at Turtle Point as it's a sandy ocean bottom (no corals to see!) for the turtles to crawl around. So, lucky us! :)

Speeding off the island. Time to go home!

goshh, this is LONGGGGGGG!! Did it took you forever to load all those pics?!?! haha... Time to rest those scrolling fingers!! ;)

Ipod Touch - A new addition to the Ipod family

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:09:00 +0000

The new Ipod family

The features

The price

Side-by-side with the iPhone which dropped a whopping USD200 in price to USD399, much to its early customers' irritation.

Ipod Nano is sporting a new look too. The new 3rd-gen Ipod Nano is slightly thicker and shorter in size with enhanced interface. Pretty cute huh. Available in 4GB for USD149 and 8GB for USD199.

Ipod Classic will be sporting a new interface and an all-metal shell. Available in 80GB for USD249 and 160GB for USD349.

Built-in FM is still nowhere in sight!! That's my pet peeve with ipods... hmph! For further details, checkout apple.com.

Note: Pics taken from apple.com and Engadget

Top 5 AllMalaysian Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:59:00 +0000

Yesterday i received an email from the All Malaysian Blogger Project (AMBP) Editor with a subject that sez "You are a Top 5 AllMalaysian Blogger"!!! woahhh!! Are you kidding me?!?! okay, still a little dazed, i quickly opened the email and was greeted with these words:

Dear AllMalaysian Blogger,

Congratulations!

We are pleased to inform you that your blog has been voted by fellow bloggers, and readers of AllMalaysian Bloggers Project, as one of the Top 5 Bloggers in the recent AMBP-Genting contest.

To view the list of winners, and what you've won, head on over to http://allmalaysia.info/visitmalaysia2007/am_blog/winners.asp

Visit the AllMalaysian Bloggers Project page as often as possible because we're keeping ourselves busy, planning a host of events/activities/contests to keep the Malaysian blogosphere spinning, so to say.

Thank you for your participation, and congrats, again!

Yours Sincerely,

The AMBP Team

p.s Here's some simple yet trendy AMBP buttons to add to your blog - wear it proudly! ;-)

gosh! Top 5! Wow, I'd like to thank my parents, my... just kidding! not doing the Oscar speech now! haha... But i gotta convey my sincere thanks to everyone who voted for the Lair, fellow bloggers and readers - thanks for dropping by and don't be a stranger! Gimme a holler anytime! ;) Special thanks to the AMBP Team, Genting and The Star Publication for having this. To quote the email, "Keep the Malaysian blogosphere spinning!!" :)

Ahh, congrats to the 5 winning voters and my fellow Top 5 bloggers too!! Drop by and check their blogs out!
- Akee's Cartoon
- Thousand Words: Snapshots of Life
- Why Must Visit Malaysia?
- Emilia's Illustrated Blog

Happy Merdeka Day! Just came back from my island breakaway. Tanned! haha.. will post more about that soon. I'm now enjoying my Merdeka holidays at the hometown so yeah, will post some pics on that too!

Thanks everyone!!! Have a great holiday and Happy Merdeka!! :)

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) at Putrajaya

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:09:00 +0000

Went to shoot the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) on Saturday and today at Putrajaya! Saturday was the opening by the Malaysian Team and the Australian Team had their pyro display today. Wow, i gotta say that i'm REALLY impressed with the Australia's 30-minute display!! Best fireworks i've seen so far eventhough i can't see the lower fireworks display. The view was blocked by a small hill from my location at the bridge.

The Malaysian fireworks display was good but nowhere near Australia's standard. Smoke is always a pest when shooting fireworks and Australia's team did very well in bursting at several strategic spaces to divert viewers' attention and let the smoke cleared before shooting at the same spot again. Awesome!!

Putrajaya night scene. Taken after the fireworks display.

Let's see my feeble attempt at shooting fireworks on a tripod under Bulb mode.. without a shutter release cable!! :PPP Saturday's shots were a bit of a disaster since it's my first time but today's shots are pretty decent.

Late and stuck in a jam when i reached Putrajaya. Didn't manage to get to a good spot for today's shooting! Traffic didn't seem to be moving and i was about 3km away from my destination with the fireworks starting at any minute! oh NO!

Decided to double park and shoot from wherever spot available before i miss the entire display! Walked to the bridge and saw the first few starting burst of fireworks. ah crap, i need to find a spot and set up the tripod ASAP!

Rushed to the end of the bridge and took a quick handshot before the tripod is up

yay, tripod's up! As i said, not a good spot but hello, what choice do i have?! Serve me right for heading to Putrajaya late!

Annoying streetlights in the pic. This is the part the ppl go... oooOooohh

And aaaaahhhh...

And wahhhhhh... Notice that the lower pyro display was blocked by a small hill.

Can't hear the music from this spot. I was at Precint 5 on Saturday and could hear faint sound of the music from PICC behind me.

Random shot at Putrajaya. Hang around for a while to let the traffic ease before heading back to KL.

There are more but yikes, it's late!! I haven't packed for my Perhentian trip tomorrow night!! Gotta sleep now! Will post more pics if i have the time before my island getaway!! Nite peeps!!

P/S: For those who are interested to watch the MIFC, Italy and Japan are set to light up Putrajaya's sky on 25th and 30th night. More info at http://www.mifc.com.my

Cycling trip to Sg. Gabai Waterfall, Ulu Langat

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:26:00 +0000

Went for my first cycling trip last weekend to Ulu Langat. It's about 45 mins drive from KL and we clocked at about 2-3 hours of cycling journey (one way including stops). Entire trip, including all our stops, took roughly about 7.5 hours from 6.30am till 2pm. Pedalled for 50++km, i did!! :)

One of the smaller waterfalls in Sg. Gabai

Had only 3 hours of sleep and woke up SOOOOOOOOO freaking early on Sunday. 4.30am!! gosh, it'd be more believable to people who know me if i had said it's time i'm about to go to sleep!!

When i was told about it, i was like... huh? Ulu Langat?! Cycle!?! ehhh, so far!! haha... and i haven't been riding a bicycle for ages! The last time was during my Taipei trip back in November last year when i rented one to ride around the coast in Danshui.

Well, what the heck... i just went for it and had a great time!

As usual, let's see the pics! :)

Gathered at Petronas gas station in Ampang at zzZZ-hour of 6.30am. The sun was not even up yett! There were more girls than guys!! ahhaha

Petai tree on the way. My first time seeing an actual petai tree and i didn't even know it has flowers... i dun have telephoto lens lerr but see that small orange dot? That's the flower! :)

Stopped for a break after a few kilometres of up-hill pedalling.

Stopped for breakfast. That's my loaned helmet

And the loaned bike.. can i keep it for good?!??

Only 6km more after going uphill and downhill! yay! The stretch after this turning is more even and a whole lot easier for cyclists! I think i'll just drive here and start cycling from here once i get my own bike... kekeke

Passed a goat farm. Again, my first getting up close to a goat farm.

Must be feeding time. There were dogs barking at me when i went near the fence for this pic so took a quick snap and scrammed off!

Lotsa fruit orchards along the way. It's fruit season so there were lotssss of rambutan and cempedak!

Arrived at Sg. Gabai! Alrighty!!

Parked all our bikes

And took off our helmets :)

Bird's dropping landed on my cap which i wore beneath the helmet. Can buy lottery la!! kekeke

One of a few waterfalls here. This one looks a lot like Kemensah Waterfall to me!

Stairs to the waterfall

Weekend crowd at Sg. Gabai

Too bad we didn't bring a change of clothes or I'll be going for another natural massage at the fall!

Stopped at a fruit stall along the way back and had a durian feast! yeah, i think this is the highlight of the trip! We ate 7 durians!! hehehh

Checkout this tiny durian with long thorns. Never tried or seen this type of durian before. They're all good! :)

my shoulder got a souvenir stamp from the outing. While going downhill there was this part with a bunch of rocks on my way... wanted to swerve out but there was a lorry coming at my back so i just go ahead and got unbalanced after hitting rocks. Took a spill and kissed the ground!

Another souvenir on the knee. Didn't have a knee pad but luckily my pants was 3/4 in length ler... else it would be really ugly and deep wound! It's healing well so far, hope it'll be as good as new by next week for my Perhentian trip! :)

Sent one of the bikes back. Almost couldn't get a bike for the outing la. So glad there was one available for loan at the last minute! Gotta get my own soon! :)

I looOOoved all the downhill rides!! But sometimes my traitorous mind kept reminding me that all the downhill would be an uphill on the way back!!! EVIL! hahah.. Reached back our starting point at about 2pm. Thought i'd be toast on the way back but the weather was cloudy and great for riding that day! All in all, it was a fun 50km ride! Glad i went for it! Time to start shopping for a bike! :D

Perhentian Island Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:18:00 +0000

Signed up for Perhentian Island Challenge's Novice Race! The fee is RM120 which include 2-way bus transport from KL to Terengganu, boat transfers, meals, tent accomodation, T-shirt, goodie bag and race certificates!!

RM120 for 3D/2N fullboard stay in Perhentian is really cheap! So i get to join the race, laze and snorkel in a gorgeous island for 3 days at only RM120!! Nice!! Race is subsidised by Tourism Malaysia and Terengganu government in conjunction with the country’s 50th Merdeka celebrations, Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and leading up to Visit Terengganu Year 2008. :)

Looking forward to shoot at Pulau Perhentian! Meanwhile, here's a gorgeous pic of Perhentian from Alfred Molon.

It was recently featured in an article in The Star Weekender too. Some snippets here:

The RM120 fee covers the cost of transportation by coach from Kuala Lumpur, boat ride and accommodation from Aug 24-Aug 26 at the Race Village – basically tents spread over two beachfronts with full toilet facilities.

It also includes meals and entertainment programmes, T-shirts, goodie bags and race certificates. There will also be a food fair and handicraft exhibition.

“We also identified the location and type of food stalls and drink stations to have, and have ensured that ample tents and kayaks would be made available for participants”

Snorkellers, for example, are not allowed to wear flippers as they could end up kicking and damaging the island’s precious coral reefs. The races are also planned in such a way that the routes take participants through the most beautiful scenery. Arrows will be strategically placed on the ocean floor to direct participants to look around and see the colourful fish and other marine life.

Markers will also be put up at strategic sites to force participants to either look up at the trees or around them. So no matter how rushed, participants are forced to pause and appreciate nature.

The Race Village will be very lively throughout the weekend with a food fest, handicraft demonstrations, traditional games, concerts and fire shows taking place during the day and late into the evening.

Wow, looking forward to 23-26 Aug! Will definitely take lotsa pics of the event and post them here! :)

*More details at Perhentian Island Challenge website.

Top 20 AMBP Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:45:00 +0000

well, what do you know?!! The Lair has been shortlisted as Top 20 Blogs in the AM Blogger Project!! wowzer! Gotta thank The Star and the peeps at AM Blogger Project for that!

Registered my Lair on All Malaysian Blogger Project (AMBP) on a whim about 2 weeks ago after reading about it on The Star and i was pleasantly surprised when i received this email in my inbox today :

Congratulations!

Your blog has been selected as one of the Top 20 AMBP blogs, and as such, will now be featured, along with the 19 other blogs, in the next stage of the Genting AMBP Contest, our very first contest for bloggers!

To check out the shortlisted blogs, proceed to http://allmalaysia.info/visitmalaysia2007/am_blog/top20.asp.

Now, in order for you to win one of the prizes, your blog will have to be ranked in the Top 5, as selected by the majority of visitors on our site. Voting begins on Aug 6 and ends on Aug 20.

Keep on blogging and may the Force be with you.

Thank you and good luck!

AMBP Editor
I.Star Division
Star Publications

Nice!! So the public will be voting among the 20 blogs to determine the Top 5 to receive prizes from Genting. ah well, i'm more than happy just being featured in the Top 20. If you're a blogger, do register your blog on the AMBP network :) You'll have to be a registered MyStar user in order to do that. And while you're at it, do spare a moment and gimme a vote!!

Durian Orchard Visit

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:00:00 +0000

I had so much durian last weekend!! I tell ya, it was one HEATY weekend!! Booze on Friday night, Klang Bak-Kut-Teh on Saturday morning and then DURIANS on Sunday! It's amazing my voice and throat survived through all that!

This is actually my first time at a durian orchard. We received invitation from Shakh, the GM of BAG to visit his orchard somewhere off Gombak. Surprised to see quite a few durian orchards around that area. We actually went to the wrong orchard the first time.. haha... And all of us city kids were so excited to see so many durians hanging on the trees!! I tell ya, it's the peak of durian season and there were SO MANY hanging around!!! There were mangosteen, langsat, starfruit, cempedak and pulasan trees too! :)

We walked around the orchard without a hard hat and when it became windy, the trees would be swaying and you'd hear durians dropping! The bunch of us ran like kids to the shelter... haha.. went outside the hazardous perimeter and waited and watched a few more dropped. Once the wind was off, we'd go collect the fresh durians!! What FUN! :)

Collection of fresh durians, just dropped from the trees!

yumyum... felt like running out and buy a pack of durians to eat now

Don't have telephoto lens :P... but can see the durians??????? :)

And the outline of durians' silhouette... haha

Langsat tree. The kid is half-monkey, i tell ya! He climbed allllllll the way up and plucked off the ripe langsat for us to catch with the plastic thingy. It was like raining langsat while we tried to catch as many as we can. Some dropped on my head and shoulders.. ouch :P

Let's keep these small! Attempted to climb but failed miserably.. kekeke

Cempedak tree.

Mangosteen, still green!

Can't reach the mangosteens? This is how you get them!

Put them in the cup and TWIST! The ripe ones will fall easily when you twist it.

This one was a complete failure. The entire branch came off!! ahahahah

Look how many we gathered!

This is for us to EAT and EAT!!

This is 'pulasan'. It's like rambutan but has stiff instead of soft hairs

Pulasan, fresh from the tree.

This is where we ate lots and lots of durians, mangosteens, pulasan, langsat, etc.

And made acquaintance with Wormy. Hello World! :P

There's a bbq pit too but we decided not to bbq cause we wanna keep our stomach free for duriansSs!!

And Shakh made us tapau mangosteens and durians back! I took the mangosteens only since i suck at opening durians :P

Serious craving for durian right now, where can i get them at this late hour?!?!?

By the time we reached PJ, we were hungry again!! It was almost dinner time and all we had were fruits the whole day!! So we went to Sri Nirwana at Bangsar for banana leaf rice! Utensils are not allowed whenever we eat banana leaf rice! So i guess i can say that it was literally finger lickin' good! ;)

Rompin Roadtrip

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:02:00 +0000

Finally have some time to myself to update the Lair. I'm appointment-free today. No stuffy bankers to meet up.. well, at least for today! I've been spending my lunches and dinners with them for the past week and glad to get a break! Took a day off to settle some legal stuff yesterday too. I've yet to go through the thick documents (more like a tome!) i gotta sign!

Just offload a bunch of pics from the cam too. My weekend trip to a durian orchard and previous batch from Rompin roadtrip.

Anyway, let's backtrack TWO weeks to my Rompin roadtrip! yeah, i'm really behind my posts and photos! :PP

Let's see them pics! :)

Dragon Fruit orchard

These were taken last 2 weeks. Came across a few Pitaya or Dragon Fruit Orchards on my way to Rompin. I had two options to drive to Rompin actually and i decided to take the kampung road instead of the highway to enjoy the scenery and small towns that i'll be passing through. I stopped a lot on my way back!

Going there took me 3.5-4 hours drive and coming back took me 7 hours!! haha.. There wasn't any traffic jam, i just took a leisure drive and stopped at all spots that interest me. I always enjoy the return roadtrip cause i can buy whatever i want and stuff it into the car!! Bought 1/2kg of yummy and hot coffee-bean-fried chestnuts from a roadside stall in Muazam Shah then i was driving and cracking chestnuts all the way in the car.. kekeke

Neways, i was just shooting from beside the road and then someone called and invited me to go right into the orchard! Nice!! I've never been to a dragon fruit farm before! It's my first time seeing a dragon fruit tree actually and it sure look weird!! Like a mix of cactus and giant aloe vera!

A young dragon fruit, already being attacked my ants.

And it grows!

So small and already drying up

The good ones will be wrapped :)

I tried the dragon fruit jelly and drink. Taste a bit weird lah

The Prime Minister was here too!

Also dropped by Ulu Bendul. The starting point to climb Gunung Angsi is somewhere here cause i saw the signboard around. :)

Ulu Bendul Recreation Park. Lotsa peeps that weekend.

They pooled up the river water like this... o_O

The park is a bit touristy and commercialized for my taste

Random stop. Got fish? :D

The signboard says "Air Kelapa Bakar". Err.. how shall i translate this? BBQ Coconut Drink? :P Wanted to try it but there was no one manning the stall when i stopped by. Even the charcoals were not lit yet. I guess they open later in the evening :|

wah, kinda long... tired of scrolling yet?!? hehehhe

Newayz, that was 2 weeks ago! Will do the durian orchard visit last week in the next post. Next time. Late dy and tomorrow is another working day. Speaking of work, I can't believe they did such IDIOTIC mistake 2 freaking weeks before Go-Live!!! urgh.. what the heck, that's another story. Let's not go there lah. Nite!

Jungle & River Trek to Kemensah Waterfall

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 18:04:00 +0000

Went for a leech-feeding session during the weekend.. keke... Okieokie, it was a mix of jungle and river trekking to Kemensah Waterfall. Went in at 9am and came out almost 4pm. That's 7 solid hours with mother nature with 3 different waterfall stops. Very nice! :)

Let's checkout the pics :)

Mossy fallen tree. I rather like this shot eventhough alllllllll my shots in this outing were really rushed! Didn't have time to do much tweaking since i need to keep moving instead of blocking people behind. The group turned out to be 29 people instead of around 10-ish. More fresh blood for the bloodsuckers!!!

Here's the part where we started off - the jungle trek. Thank goodness the ground was dry and even so there were so many leeches around! I shudder to think if it rained the night before - with the ground slippery and full of bloodsuckers... yerrgh

Newayz, I don't have many shots of the jungle trek part cause i just wanna keep moving before the bloodsuckers got a chance to stick on me! Of course, what you see here is the easy-peasy part! There were areas where i gotta pack the cam into the bag... can't have it dangling around cause we had to be on all four - think Spiderman! Very slopy and if you slipped, you'll be rolling alllllll the way downhill. If you're lucky, you'll be saved by a tree halfway down after hitting it with a sickening thud.. hehhh.. okok, none of that happened lah. We have good spidey skills :)

And then the river trek. ahh, I really enjoyed this part. Leech-free and cool water rushing down my feet. Nice!!

Another mossy log!

Watch your head!

Slippery shoes.. whoops, she almost slipped there!

2nd waterfall. Not a good shot. Vaporish lens. Lotsa fine spray of water when you're near the fall... blah

3rd waterfall - 2 guys from the other group under the fall. Another blah-shot. Neways, this is the highlight of the journey to me! Get a natural therapeutic massage just by standing under the few-hundred-feet-high waterfall!! woohoo! Grrreat stuff! I'm still waiting for the pic of me frolicking under the fall from the other camera! Now that i think about it, i'd SO do it again for this!

Crystal in the rock. As seen on the ground along the trek back from 3rd waterfall.

Our bloody souvenirs from the outing.. haha.. I got a bite at about the same place too. Managed to detect and pull out about a dozen or so leeches before they bit and drew blood. Missed one at the very end. So damn itchy... ishh.. Newayz, felt good with the outcome cause i expected to get a LOT more than one!

Got out from the jungle at 4pm so we totally missed lunch! Starving people then went for a seafood dinner at Cheras. :)

Next, PADDLE OR DIE!!!!!!

P/S: Happy 4th July!!

Hotties

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:30:00 +0000

I was going to post the outing pics but got side-tracked by these hotties!!! ahahha

Bumblebee, the cutiepie sidekick. Totally adorable!!

Optimus Prime is so freaking HOT!! what a BOT!! And that huge gun and sexy voice... *swoon*

Chocolate Durian Cake

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:45:00 +0000

I love trying exotic food and anything with durian in it is exotic enough in my book! So when i heard about this Chocolate Durian Cake from Just Heavenly Pleasures in Epicure, Bukit Damansara, i simply have to try it!

This cupcake-size Chocolate Durian Cake will set you back RM8.90. Lotsa floggers raved about this cake but to me, it's not off-the-scale-good. Just decent and different. A good change from the norm cakes. Can't take too much of it though. Well, you know how durian is.. almost like cheesecake which is best taken mildly.

Chunks of fresh durian inside the cake, covered with chocolate.

I also bought a Ferrero-Rocher-size Rum Ball (RM2.20 per ball) which i immediately popped into my mouth, so no pics on that... hehh... As for taste, um... nothing much to shout about. They are generous with the rum so you'll definitely taste it on first bite. Again, i'll say it's okay but not spectacular. After all, i set the bar high when it comes to my tastebuds :)

P/S: The weekend jungle & river trekking will be up next! Um.. mebbe tonight... or tomorrow :D

Autobots transform!!

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:18:00 +0000

Just came back from a midnight show of TRANSFORMERS!

omg, i love it to BITS!! Nevermind that there's no good looking guys, the Autobots are wayyyyyyyyyyy HOT!! kekkeke... oh wait, there's a pretty hot soldier! And a hot girl for the guys too! ;)

Everyone should SO watch it! Grab your ticket at a THX cinema and enjoy the sound bytes!! Sexy bot voices, Linkin Park & Goo Goo Dolls on the soundtrack, and I especially lurrrve the sound effect when the bots transform. Great stuff!!

Chiang Mai Recommendations

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:53:00 +0000

Got airtix to Chiang Mai in November so I'm gonna need some recommendations on Chiang Mai attractions. I know some of you have been there and are very familiar with the place. Will be there for 4 days so come come... tell me some good places for yummy FOOD, shopping (what's cheap there?), night markets, must-go places, the must-dos etc. :)

As for accomodations, I wanna stay right smack in the middle of the happening places - with most within walking distance. So I've been told that i should stay near the Night Bazaar (is this a daily thingy or weekend only?). Checked online and i've got this hotel called Suriwongse in my shortlist.

That's all i've got for now. Normally, I prefer going to islands and spend my days at the beach and snorkel all day long so when it comes to non-beach places, i get stumped! Will appreciate some recommendations ok! :)

Leech-Proof socks

noreply@blogger.com (ashlight) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:24:00 +0000

Been raining lately and i've been told to "be prepared to FEED the leeches" in the upcoming outing... . Many said that splattering tiger balm all over the legs helps keep the pests away... i might do just that.. heh

"Leeches have an adverse reaction to the menthol contained in heat rubs and will detach quickly upon contact with the substance"

Neways, I stumbled on to this Leech-Proof Socks which are available in Borneo/East Malaysia but can't say that i've seen them around here. Where can i get this here eh????