This photo was taken 14 August 2010, a surprise birthday party at Sailor’s Cafe. I noticed that it was mentioned in a few blog; the place I mean, not the surprise birthday party. I remember back when I was taking my PADI Open Water diving course, Nestor was telling us how he planned to open up a Boutique Cafe, and I never thought it was going to be this cozy, a very relaxed looking place. Nestor is still trying to get one piece of item to complete his wall of fame, an oxygen tank full with signature of…

US! His diving buddies.

Something caught my eyes on Nestor’s wall of fame, a photo of books, and of course one particular book.

It’s the Life of Pi, because people called me Pai, so there you go. I wonder if it’s a good read, Nestor says its good. Want to know another thing that caught my attention?

The men’s toilet. I was reading the black board at the top Nestor’s wall when I saw “photos in the mens toilet not for sale”, so I went to take a look. I heard the powder room looked nice too. I don’t want to risked being called a pervert trying to take a peek at the powder room though. If you are thinking of “relieving” yourself here, it’s a no go. The toilet door is semi-transparent. We know what you did in that toilet.

Sailor’s cafe is at Grand Millennium Plaza, the same block with Krishna Curry House & Baba Nyonya, at first floor. You can’t miss the signboard.

This is the chronology of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation from 27th until 31st May 2010, Day 4

Can you spot Mickey?

Now can you spot Mickey?

Yeap, this is it. I’ve wanted to go to Disneyland whole of my life. I still remember entering all sorts of competition just because the Grand Prize was a visit to Disneyland or Disney World. I wouldn’t want to miss this. Still my ultimate destination would still be Disney World in Florida!

My company was kind enough to sponsor us One Day pass card; it’s HKD350 per card, for all rides in the park, except for the foods and souvenirs or course. I think I must have shave 30 years of my life, I was extremely excited like a kid to be there. Like I said, it’s my childhood dream. Song from all Disney’s stories are playing continuously, I have the sudden rush of memories of all the movies that’s I have watched. By the way, you can’t bring outside food here, but if you do planned to bring it in, make sure you concealed it properly.

One Day All Ride pass

The first thing I did when I entered Disneyland was waiting in line to take picture with two dawg, Goofy and Pluto. Didn’t take picture with Mickey and Mini Mouse though, the line was so long! We just proceed to Fantasy Land crossing Main Street.

As we were heading to Fantasy Land, there was a Marching Band playing, so we stopped to watch. I was so excited about this because I used to be in a school marching band. How I miss playing the trumpet.

There were a lot of rides at Fantasy Land but I didn’t bother to try it. Instead we proceed to Fantasy Garden to take picture with Mickey Mouse and Winnie The Pooh.

Tried the “It’s a small world” ride, which is basically around the world ride with little children dolls singing. There’s “Selamat Jalan” at the end of the ride.

Went to Tomorrow Land after that and tried out their Space Mountain ride. It’s a roller coaster ride in the dark. What makes this interesting is the fact that it’s dark so you can’t see where you are going. So you wouldn’t know if you are going up or down, left or right, unlike other roller coaster ride where you can still anticipate the turn. I managed to take picture with Buzz Lightyear, and watch a percussion performance before it started to rain. I had my lunch at Tomorrow Land and spent the rest of the time shopping for souvenirs while waiting for the rain to stop. I bought myself three T-shirts and two Stitch dolls.

After the rain had stopped, I went to Adventure Land. Too bad they are in the midst of refurbishing Tarzan’s Lair. We tried out the Adventure Land ride, a boat ride going through Adventure Land waters in the jungles. There’s a lot of animatronics in this ride, coupled with the boat’s Captain story makes the ride fun. Elephant squirting water toward our boat, Hippo appearing out of nowhere, campsite over run by monkeys who are shooting at us, I think I’ll let my video do the talking. It was fun!

The place is being refurbished!

After that ride, I went to get buy photo that was taken from my Space Mountain ride and the one with Disney characters. Yes, they have their own photographer to take our photo, and you can buy them where you can add nice looking borders together with the signature of the characters. I encountered a singing quartet as we were walking to get the photos.

Yeap, it was washed away

Because we were tired from walking in the park, we waited at a cafe sipping coffee. As we were waiting, I heard there were a commotion, a dentist, a nurse and a patient. I looked a round and found there was a Dental Clinic near the place where we are having our coffee. The recording was funny. One of it was the Dentist using a laughing gas to pull a tooth. After it was pulled out, the patient was still laughing, telling the doctor that he pulled the wrong teeth.

While some of my colleague went out of Disneyland early to do more shopping, a few of us waited until 8pm to catch the fire works. I waited anxiously for the fireworks to start. Slowly the place was full of people, all waiting for the firework to start.

The show was spectacular and it was surreal to me. It really is. As we were waiting for the others and comparing stories for our experience, I think I should have tried all the rides first, then take picture with all of Disney’s character. I was a little bit envy with my friend who manages to take photo with Donald Duck! But still I’m quite satisfied.

We had our dinner at Bali Restaurant, which was a few block from our hotel. The moment we walk into the restaurant, the waiter instantly know we speak Malay and asked us “Berapa orang?”. We were speaking in Malay as we were entering the establishment. To think that it probably is a halal restaurant but it’s not, because we saw pork in one of the dishes. *Sigh*. After having our dinner, we finally have a chance to check out Temple Street. To me, it’s about the same with Ladies Market only it’s shorter in length. It’s just a short visit, not buying that much because all I have bought all that I need at Ladies Market. I bought an iPhone earplug there but regretted buying it as I found out later at the hotel that the sound quality was terrible. I spent the rest of the night arranging my luggage because it’s full of stuff.

So that’s day 4 of my Macau – Hong Kong Vacation

This is the chronology of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation from 27th until 31st May 2010, Day 3.

It’s our last breakfast at Macau. I forgot to mention this on my previous post. Did you notice when you order a burger at our local restaurant that they always serve it with spoon and fork. Well over here, we are having rice, using fork and knife. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Today all of us will be taking ferry to Hong Kong, Kowloon to be exact, departing from Macau at 11 am. When Danny told us we would be taking first ferry to Hong Kong, I was puzzled because why would your first ferry depart at 11? Turns out, after getting our ticket, we are taking a ferry run by New World First Ferry. Silly me.

Much like the ferry that we took on my first day of vacation, this one is also comfortable, reached Kowloon at about 12pm. After immigration check, I was stop by their health inspector because I’m hot. Yeah, I was smokin’, so they have to stop me to get my autograph. That was what I hope it was; instead, they sense my body temperature was high from their heat camera. They did a physical temperature check and my temperature was 38 degree Celsius. OK I don’t feel like I’m coming down with flu. The health inspector asked me a few question, one of it is if I have contracted Avian flu. Are you kidding me? Oh please not me! When he asked if I have cough, sore throat, running nose, shortness of breath, diarrhea and vomiting, I answered no. When asked if I have been in contact with any animal, I think hard, if he means any kind of birds, the only close encounter was the “chicken” at Hard Rock Hotel, and I didn’t even touch them. So he let me go, giving me a letter so if I do came down with a flu, just present the letter to the doctor and they will do the rest. Thank god I don’t need it.

We were brought to a restaurant at Tsim Sha Tsui area before checking in into our hotel, at Eaton Hotel. Our guide for this tour is Mr. Warner. There’s no tour for today and all of us are pretty much free to do what ever we want to do. So most of us already know what we want to do today. All of us want to go to Ladies Market, was named like that because it use to sell only ladies item’s but over the years offers even more items. Warner gave us a tip when buying there. Whenever you see something you like, say peng yee (is that the correct spelling I do not know) which translated to our famous kasih kurang, and if the seller doesn’t give you a good bargain, just walk away from the stall, but walk slowly, then the seller will call you back to give you even better price.

Apple or CSL?

Our guide, Mr. Warner

After checking in; we stayed in room 1506, we proceed to where else, Ladies Market. There is also Temple Street very near to our hotel but it only open at night and it’s only 3pm. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to Ladies Market. The market is long, it’s like walking from Sinsuran to Segama, we saw t-shirt, bags, women’s handbag, iPhone & Blackberry cover, electronic stuff, kinky stuff (for the ladies and gents), imitation merchandise, too many to describe. We took Warner advice and made some good deal. I’m not good at bargaining so even though I did say peng yee and made a few good deals, I think they can still lower their price.

Remember Ip Man?

We encounter a group of Malaysia, forgot to ask where they are from, doing some bargaining, while referring to a card. When we asked what card were they holding, they say it’s a currency rate card that they prepared so it’s easy for them to convert to Ringgit. I don’t need a card for that, I just need my Nokia.

Too bad that it was raining when we were busy shopping, because we were planning to visit Temple Street after that. But honestly, my feet were sore from the long walk. We decide to get out from the rain and rest for a while at Starbucks. I like the blueberry cheesecake here, they use real berry. Took a taxi back to our hotel after a short window-shopping at the shopping complex where Starbucks is.

This is what I bought over at Ladies Market

This is what I bought in Macau

We went to check the nightclubs near the hotel after resting a bit; I think ours is better, I’m just saying, because I’m not a regular clubber aite!

So that’s Day 3 of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation.

This is the chronology of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation from 27th until 31st May 2010, Day 2

We're back in K.K.?

That company was next to our hotel. Noticed the phone digit? So our first stop is at Macau’s oldest temple, 500 years old temple, called A-Ma, named after a Taoist Goddess. According to Danny, ladies who wished to get married, couple who whished to have children, and anyone who want to amass wealth, should come to this temple. Well that’s that, it is also the birthplace for Macau and how it got its name. When the Portuguese first came there, it was near the temple. The Portuguese asked what’s the name of the temple and the local said Ma-Gok (I think that’s how it is spelled, correct me if I’m wrong) and maybe these foreigner is hard on hearing, heard it as Ma-Cau. So there you go, how Macau got its name.

Waiting for our bus

We will visit that later in the evening

Danny explaining to us about the temple history

I was walking around the temple when I saw a lady rubbing her hands over a bronze basin’s handle that makes the water inside it jumps around. *Huargh*. Friction between the lady’s palm and the thick bronze handle created a vibration which was efficiently transferred to the thin bronze basin which magnify the vibration causing the water inside it to jump. Like I said, *Huargh* zzzzzzZZZZZZZZZ Have the urge to puke?

As we were heading back to our bus to go to our next destination, I couldn’t help to noticed the paintings on the walls, a painting of toilet campaign I think, something like Kenon’s cartoon on almost all toilet in KK except this one is a huge wall painting.

Next destination was the Macau Tower. This is the place where you can Bungie Jump, Sky Jump, Sky Walk and Sky Climb. Oh I was tempted to try if not for the price tag that come with it. I want to save up for Hong Kong and Disneyland okay. In the future, I will come back here, for sure! This is where we are having our lunch. The food here are great, a lot of choices. Kinda reminds me of our very own Atmosphere Restaurant at Yayasan Sabah.

That's a very interesting roundabout

After lunch, we were brought to visit the Ruins of St. Paul’s. The ruins here, the way I looked at it, is quiet preserved, as compared to ours in Melaka. I’m not saying ours is terrible, I’m just stating my observation. After that we went to Senado Square, passing through their shopping district. I think this is what DBKK tried to do a few years back with Gaya Street but was muchly objected by KK resident because we LOVED to park near the shop and some went to the extent of parking inside the shop itself.

Reaching Senado Square, all of us are free to roam the place to shop for souvenir. I follow Siti and Ainee to try out Milk Pudding at a nearby shop. Imagine a carton box of Desa fresh milk, only you don’t drink it, you eat it. iLike!!! Then I went to look around, getting some souvenirs. The rest of my tour group were told to re-group at the City Hall if any of us would like to visit Jacky Chan’s hotel. Well I miss the boat, so I just continue with my photo taking of the place.

This fountain is inside the City Hall

Stair to the fountain

We went to Venetian Hotel after that, where according to Danny, gold paper was used to decorate the whole hotel. Even the shower is made of Gold. It’s where the biggest Casino in the world is. Imagine the whole basement and ground floor of 1Borneo combined. Get the idea? So most of the ceilings are covered with the paintings of The Greek’s God. I’m not a gambler so I was a bit bored yet feel interesting at the same time looking at the gambling tables there. I’ve should have followed the rest of the group who went to check the rest of the place. According to them, on the upper level, sky was drawn onto the ceiling making it looked as if you are walking under a clear bright sky. Oh by the way, four piece of Satey and Nasi Himpit cost $70 over here. That’s roughly RM30. Expensive yes?

Looked neat and clean. Why can't our looked as clean as this?

We visited Hard Rock Hotel hopping to find Hard Rock Cafe, unfortunately they don’t have a cafe, just hotel and casino. Figures! So we stopped by at their retail outlet to get their t-shirt. I noticed these two young ladies standing near to Hard Rock entrance, wearing a super short skirt with super low showing their pump-up boobies grey uniform, cleavage was clearly showing, as if you can swipe your credit card there! Was wondering whom they represent actually. My friend told me they are prostitutes, trying to get customer. Prostitution is legal there. Hey, I’m a guy, of course I ogle at them. What do you think? My eyes are glued to them “chickens” aite!

Walked back to our hotel after that, took us 15 minutes to reach it. We went back to the same supermarket the other night to get some grubs, and we found food with “Halal” sign from Malaysia. Seriously we found it. Mister Potato and Tama instant noodles. Kewl eh?

We bought these there!

So that’s Day 1 2 of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation.

This is the chronology of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation from 27th until 31st May 2010, Day 1

The much-anticipated trip for this year I would say. When my company announces that they are going to be organizing a vacation trip this year I immediately sign in, I really need a vacation. At first we were told that we would be going to Macau for a few days. My colleague and I were thinking off going to Hong Kong ourselves from Macau since we are not gambling there. Who wouldn’t want to go to Hong Kong? Everybody knows it is the place to get good food, good shopping bargain; I was told so, and DISNEYLAND! Later on it was changed, we would spend 2 days in Macau and 3 Days in Hong Kong. And a lot of us sign in to visit Disneyland, only a few opt to do their own thing. Shopping I guess.

So here we are, all ready at the airport, with smiling face, a half empty luggage and myself with one bag pack. We were told to be at the airport as early as 8:30am, to check-in our luggage early, to avoid complication I guess since our departure time is at 11:35am. So we waited together at Mc Donald and have our breakfast there. This would be also the first time I’m keeping a travel book for myself, together with my brand new Fuji Instax camera.

Breakfast at Mc. Donalds

My little travel scrap book

We boarded our craft together with a few Hongkies who are I think returning from their vacation here in KK. There was a seat mixed up on board and the Hongkies thought the nice old couple had taken their seats. It turns out their boarding pass had a hand written seat allocation whereas all of us is printed on it. I was on seat 23B but gladly gave up my seat so I could sit next to the windows. I know it’s just a bunch of clouds on the way there but I just have to see what’s Hong Kong looked like from the air. Our craft is Boeing 737-400, I was hoping for Airbus.

Does all flight attendant required to talk funny? It’s like whenever they put on their uniform, their accent cortex also changed or something. This particular flight has that, that funny accent. But I guess it would be even funnier if he speaks like Captain Kirk on board The Enterprise. We arrived at Kong Kong International Airport at about 2:30pm, thirsty. We waited at the arrival hall for our Ferry ticket to Macau. There were a lot of travelers there, I think waiting for the same ferry transfer to Macau. We saw a group from Indonesia while we sipping water from water dispenser there. Their tour guide calling for them was a dead giveaway. Oh I found an Apple Reseller there and quickly went there to check iPad price. There’s only one there on sale and it was bought by this gentlemen. Didn’t dare to ask the price though, fearing that I might want to get it. They say its coming out this month. I think I’ll just wait for it back in KK.

Arrived safely, going to arrival hall on bus

"yeah but where's the toilet?"

That's roughly RM4 per can!

At about 4:00pm we got our ticket and proceed to take the train to the Ferry Terminal. I think there is another Malaysian group going to Macau, sensing from the way they talk, I think from KL, plus their looks. But I know they are Malaysia because they say “hei main tipu lah” when we reached Macau and someone jumped queue, I think. The ferry that going to board looked like a spaceship, red colour some more! We should have this type of ferry here in KK, much safer and comfortable.

Our ferry ticket to Macau

Inside the ferry.

We arrived Macau at about 6:00 pm and were brought straight away to Rock Hotel for our dinner. I noticed that the building was beautiful, trying to figure out their building influence. Later I was told that Macau was under Portuguese occupation. According to Danny, our tour guide, most of VIPs have their lunch at where we are going, so he says. After our dinner, we were taken on a night tour of Macau, passing a few hotels and casinos there. Some of the picture I took was a bit blurry because we were on the tour bus, we didn’t stop to take picture, we were heading to our hotel at Taipa Island.

Looked like Olympic's Cube

Istana Takeshi? HAHAHAHA

Jacky Chan is one of the owner of this place.

This is where we will have our lunch tomorrow

During our ride to our hotel, Danny explained to us that Macau is the most cloudy city in the world. I figured he was referring to the weather because when we reached there, it was a bit hazy. Not until he mentioned per square kilometre, which I thought to myself, how does hazy and per area related? Then I realize he was referring to Macau population. The most crowded city in the world! OK so his English pronunciation was a bit off.

We stayed at Best Western Hotel Taipa, my roommate is Mahathir and we stayed in Room 720. We made a quick stroll around our hotel after checking in, together with Asmawi and Veronica. As I was browsing through the city maps, I noticed there are a lot of Portuguese remnants. I just noticed, after years of leaving school, the word Gereja derived from Portuguese, Igreja. Should have paid more attention during history class. We went to the supermarket to get some supply and I noticed a few Nazarene, a familiar face that we find in Melaka. Pandai-pandai saja saya label orang begitu HAHAHAHA

Night stroll near our hotel

So that’s Day 1 of my Macau-Hong Kong vacation.

via [gizmodo]

OK so I owned a MacBook Pro (a.k.a. Cik Bedah) and an iPhone (a.k.a. Cik Timah) and maybe; not so distance hopefully, an iPad (a.k.a I have not think of a name for it yet aite!). For my company trip to Macau and Hong Kong tomorrow, I thought of bringing Cik Bedah with me, but I guess she’s much safer at home so I’ll just bring Cik Timah instead; the fact that I’ve installed Macau and Hong Kong map on Cik Timah support this decision.

OK things to bring. Clothes? Duh! Men are a simple being. We can live a week with just a suitcase. 1 jeans is all we need. everything else you can buy. Universal adapter, just in case they have different socket pin. It happened to me last time when I was in Manila, I have to really conserve my battery usage because I just can’t charge my gadget. Voltage rating? It’s the same as what Malaysia are using now, 220-240 volt/50 hertz. Although I think Malaysia should change to 60 hertz because it’s much more EFFICIENT.

What else? Extra memory for my camera. Since I’m not bringing Cik Bedah, you can bet my memory card will going to be full. If only I can find my old camera, because I want to salvage its battery. Oh and I think I’m going to start my very own travel log, inspired by my friend. Nothing beats scribbling & selotaping thing on it, no? Oh and umm, instant noodle, just in case.

So that’s about it. Don’t miss me. I’ll be back after 5 days

via [and-i-quote tumblr]

Going to be a busy weekend, wedding to attend, and maybe scuba diving at TARP! I wonder if Sabahan Bloggers going to do Mob Dance style kinda thing at Daniel and Emelda‘s wedding reception?

Did you know that in China there is an iPad rip-off that runs on Windows? Just get one of those and prance around at our local shopping complexes and you can bet your ass everyone would try to take a closer look at it, that is if they are not asking why are you walking like that. [thenextweb] via [gizmodo]

[Shoebox Blog] via [gizmodo]

Now that does clarify everything up. If you are wondering, I’m more of a tech/gadget/computer and anime geek. But then again I might also be a dork. Owh shoot now I’m confused!

So I’ll be watching the screening of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance tomorrow, the only three 30-year-old Anime fan who are watching it together with a bunch of 20-year-old. Honestly, I haven’t watch the first movie but nevermind, I’ll just catch this one first and will look for the first movie later.

Have a nice and wonderful weekend!

Consider yourself informed!