The Chronicles Of A Muffin

2008 @ A Glance

2009-01-02T09:14:00.015+08:00

So...2008 is gone...

I know I haven't been updating regularly since October but things have been quite hectic.

Before I set off into 2009...just thought it be good to take a look back at what 2008 offered & the things that I'm thankful for in life....

Personal Life
Bomb and I have settled in quite well into domestic bliss and celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. Can't believe its one year already. Still remember the running around that we were doing while planning the wedding...

We have also settled in quite well into our home…so well that it scares the living daylights out of us thinking that in a year or two, we will have to do the whole packing and unpacking thing again!

Just a short year or so ago…we had just moved in…

Having tea on the steps after cleaning the house

I don’t have many pictures of the house at the moment…so all u get to see is the garden…

Bomb has been working off shore quite a bit too since the wedding so I have had to busy myself with activities of my own so that I don’t go crazy…hence I finally got my act together and have signed up for a gym which I go to 2-3 times a week and I play futsal once a week. So far, all that + work has been keeping me busy.

Family Life
We welcomed a new baby into the family in September. Baby Haneesha or Neesha was born to my brother and sister in law and I have to say…she’s got character!
We are all so smitten by this little baby…Even Macho Bomb

We took a week off in October and spent it in Miri with Neesha. Was so much of fun.

Baby & Big Baby

My little Hero Paven has also grown up quite a bit. He will be turning 3 in April and has definitely taken after me when it comes to his love of talking!
His mummy is currently preggers with a little sister / brother for him that will join the family come July…

Paven & I - KL Butterfly Farm

Paven & Mummy - KL Butterfly Farm

My Trips
When I started the year in 2008, I had told myself I wanted to do a fair amount of travelling and I did. I didn’t manage to go to all the places I wanted but have to say I enjoyed every trip I did manage to make.

Pangkor - A holiday that made me realise how much I could actually eat! It was our first holiday together as hubby & wifey. Was so much fun.

Redang - My first trip with mum for 2008. Redang was so amazing. The sights looked like something out of a postcard. The beach was great and I prayed alot on the boat to and from the island.

Phuket - My oh my...what can I say about Phuket. It was my first biking trip outside of Malaysia and it was an havoc 2000km journey. The whole bike journey to Krabi and then Phuket was amazing.

Bangkok - Bangkok was our first ever mother daughter group trip. Mum & I + Sabrin & her mum. It was so much fun. Sabrin and I have really grown closer and it was so much fun sharing this trip with her...this year we hope to do a sister sister trip.

Work
I switched from being a techie to doing sales in the last quarter of 2008. In a whole, I actually spent most of 2008 getting adjusted and finding myself here in my new office.
The first 6 months were not great where I increasingly disliked my day to day work and I hadn’t really made many friends in the office. Wanting to be accepted, I found myself getting involved in things that were not exactly to my benefit.

Then once I switched to sales, it was all new again, new people, new procedures, new expectations…more adjusting…

Its 1 year exactly today since I switched to this new office. I have gained a handful of really good buddies and am liking my new sales related role. Do I still miss the folks back in Penang? Definitely! I don’t think I will even get over that.

2009 started wonderfully for me…from the countdown to the way I spent the first day of the year.
What’s in store for me this year…I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

HOG Mersing Ride

2008-10-23T12:08:00.006+08:00

Before bomb left in August, we went for a trip with the other Harley Bikers to Mersing. It was their annual family day trip so almost everyone brought the whole family along.

We rode but there was also a bus from KL. Weather when we rode to Mersing was pretty good most of the way with the occasional must have rain but can’t say the same for the ride back...we left in the rain and passed thru quite a few showers.

Some pictures from the trip…

916?

2008-09-16T12:10:00.008+08:00

I was at PJ Stadium here in Kelana Jaya last night at the 916 event...was the best way I could have ever spent my Monday night!

Attaching some photo's that I took at the event. Sorry but some of the photos are black and white...didn't realize that I accidentally selected the gray scale option…

The promise of change is big and I think at this stage people are willing to take a chance and support Anwar to form a new government considering the current situation.

Bangkok Delights! [Part 2]

2008-09-12T14:33:00.014+08:00

Continuation from Part 1 of Bangkok Delights

Shopping
It was extremely silly of me but when I got home, I realized I didn’t take any pictures of the places we shopped at. I guess you can say that I was really preoccupied with the business at hand and the main aim…TO SHOP.

I actually packed a really small back with my things and clothes and took 1 totally empty bag with me for my loot.

However, here’s a quick guide on where you should go for good bargains

Great Bargains
Platinum Mall – 7 floors of shopping heaven
Pratunam Market – Open market opposite Platinum Mall

Good Bargains
MBK Mall – huge mall, lotsa walking and shopping

There are many many small night markets in and around these areas. If you are looking for bargains, you might want to give a pass to more commercial shopping areas where traders are waiting to make an extra buck off tourist.

See the progress?

The bag had to be forced close on the day we left!

Animals…
No post about my travels would be complete without the pictures of some animals.

This dog sleeps at the foot of the stairs of the Sky Train station. In the evenings when the nearby stalls open, the traders give him doggy biscuits and water in his own bowl.

In and Around
These are some other pictures that we took in and around Bangkok. Over all it was a very fun trip. I always enjoy traveling with my mum, she is really great company…lets just say that we don’t exactly have a conventional mother – daughter relationship.

Hmm…nothing to wear la…maybe I need to go on a shopping trip…

Bangkok Delights!

2008-08-25T21:28:00.010+08:00

Its been sometime since I got back from Bangkok but work has been pretty much crazy since I got back.

Bangkok was all bout shopping and eating + Thai massages. We didn’t do much of sight seeing cause the aim of this trip was to shop.

I thought I’d finally get my act together and post some pictures from Bangkok. I’m not going to do day to day chronicles like I usually do; instead I’m going to categories the total trip into a couple of different categories…

Hotel
I booked the hotel online and had my fingers and toes crossed hoping that it be as nice and as comfy as the pictures on the web site.

We arrived at Samran Place Hotel and were very very glad…

I don’t think I have stayed in a cleaner hotel in my whole life…spotless…especially the bathroom. Amazing! Definitely recommend this place for travelers that want to be close to the main shopping area and not pay a bomb but still have a clean and safe hotel.

Breakfast was provided in the package…no buffet spread but a set menu kinda thing…was okie for the first few days but the longer we stayed there, the less interesting the breakfast was…

The view from my room however left a lot to desire!

Food
We ate lotsa things when we were in Bangkok and a daily staple used to be Tomyam.
Language was a barrier sometimes when wanting to order food, especially on the day we decided to go have dinner in a local coffee shop kinda restaurant. It was interesting trying to order the food and then all we could do was cross our fingers and hope that it was something we’d imagine eating…

Highlights of the food we had
Roi.Com Restaurant – We had our first night dinner here. It was pretty good especially since we were super starving. Staff was helpful and menu was in English. It is opposite First Hotel.

Platinum Food Court – This food court is in the Platinum shopping mall. Its huge and has a good selection of local favorites. Prices are a little more than that of the normal shops but with everything in one place, it is very convenient especially since this mall is super super huge, you will need a time out and this would be the place to come to for that.

Black Canyon Coffee – We were still in Platinum Mall so we headed to the Black Canyon Coffee outlet for some coffee. I swear the mall is so super huge and you do need to take breaks. We ordered a latte and a cappuccino and went by a nearby kiosk and got some local tea time yummies. The coffee was really good and didn’t cost a bomb like it would have in Starbucks or Coffee Bean

Local Restaurant Made to Order Dinner – This was on the night that we felt adventures. We had passed this restaurant many times on the way to and from our hotel so it was only fair we gave it a go. Language was a big problem here and the order was mostly made with sign language and pointing. It the end it was a good meal. The environment of the place made the meal a whole lot nicer. Price was also pretty cheap compared to back home. Good stuff.

MBK Mall – We were in MBK Mall about lunch time and we decided to go this noodle house place. Looked pretty nice but the food was a disappointment. It took really long to arrive and lacked in flavor. Hands down the worse meal we had in Bangkok. Luckily the pig was cute…

The Pizza Company – After quite a few days of having local food, we wanted to have something different. We decided to try the pizza company, Thailand’s version of Pizza Hut but honestly 100% better than our pizza hut. We ordered a set for 4 and it was gone in minutes cause it was really good and we were so hungry after all the walking and shopping.

We passed a lot of local street food while walking around in town but didn’t dare try them…I know…bunch of chicken’s…

More about the trip soon!

More Food From Down South!

2008-07-31T14:45:00.004+08:00

Went for lunch today at a popular Nasi Campur cum Nasi Padang place near Menara Sarawak.
The shop…seriously packed…

There is a super large selection of food and the aroma was super too…

The shop also caters for a large amount of take away meals…

Actually to be honest, I didn’t really see / taste the difference in the food. I always thought that the dishes that g with Nasi Padang are mostly more rich in like coconut. Maybe I skipped all the dishes that looked like that and went for the normal stuff (?)

All in all, it was ~~a little oily~~ good…

I took rice, chicken, vegi, egg + a drink and it cost me RM 5.50…cheap…
Would recommend this place – Ina Nasi Padang near Menara Sarawak or its fancy new name - Menara MSC Cyberport.

Still Down South!

2008-07-31T10:58:00.009+08:00

Since I’ve been in JB, all I have really done is work.

On a few rare instances, we got the chance to explore some food joins here in JB.
Since there is little I can say about the things that I have seen here in JB, here’s a rundown of all the stuff I have eaten since I got here:

Super Breakfast @ The Zone

The breakfast here at the hotel is pretty good. A very large variety and lots of food even if I come for breakfast at 9+am.

The variety ranges from an Egg Station, Nasi Lemak Station, Chinese Noodles Station, On The Spot Cooking Station (so far I have seen them make roti jala and roti canai on the spot), The Cereal Station, Yogurt and Fruit Station and the American Breakfast Station.

Basically, there is a lot of food. In the dining hall, there are big glass windows that allow you to enjoy the view of the Straits of Johor and Singapore just across the sea.

The 4 of us usually spend some quiet time during breakfast and just enjoying the view.

However, in the week + that we have stayed here, a few things are a constant…

Idiots smoking at breakfast while seated in the non – smoking section
And
Food Wastage…Sedap Corner

Sedap Corner is this big orange corner lot house.
They have a big range of local Malay food. If u fancy having a couple of dishes or just a single ala-cart meal, it’s a good place to go.

It’s a little bit pricy, but the environment makes up for it.
I decided to try their Nasi Goreng Kampung…I’ll give it 7 out of 10.

Besides their food, Sedap Corner is knows for it’s Mock tails. They have about 10 different mixtures. I tried something called Sejati….8/10…nice but a little on the sweet side.

Anjung Warisan a.k.a Eating on Tree’s

This is a really cool place. The seating is actually up and around trees. Previously the patrons needed to climb up rope ladders to get to the huts but it has now been upgraded to proper steps and all that.

This place is famous for 2 main things…

The Music that is played from this instrument:

And their Nasi Bryani Anjung Warisan which is their version of the Nasi Bryani Gam that is famous in JB. Pictures of that later.

Back to the musical instrument…it looks pretty and the music that is produces is extremely interesting. This guy who I assume works there, puts on different kinda music and fuses them with the instrument’s music…very cool.

Watch the video, the song playing in the background (which isn’t really clear in the video) is some heavy metal malay song.

I finally climbed up my tree with the rest of the guys and made my order…

After a lot of chit chatting and makaning we headed home. It was a long day…
Other pictures from around the restaurant

Tepian Tebrau

This place is something like an open air food court.
Not that many stalls open in the night but the few that are open are specialized in what they sell.

This is what we had…

Ice Jelly – similar to the concept of ice kacang, the ice jelly consist of ice shavings over
lemon flavoured jelly topped with lots of fruits. Nice, not too sweet.

Sotong Kangkung – Although I’m not really crazy about squid prepared this way, I did
give it a go anyway. For me…it was just so so…

La-La – Again something I’m not crazy about but I was pleasantly surprised cause it
tasted pretty good. The sauce was out of this world.

Grilled Fish – Grilled String Ray…I have had better in Penang so this was pretty average. To me the freshness and the sauce makes all the difference…this got a point for freshness but none for the sauce.

Marry Brown @ The Zon Shopping Complex

The last time I ate at Marry Brown, I had to be about 5 and it sucked then and it still sucks now.
This has to be the worse meal I have had since I got to JB.

The 4 of us ordered an 8 piece combo that came with Pepsi and 2 small sad looking coleslaw portions.

The over all appeal of the place was crappy…

I only ate 1 piece of chicken out of my share and donated the other piece to one of the guys…

I’m still trying to arrange a trip to go eat the Goreng Pisang with Sambal Kicap…shall post about that soon.

JB

2008-07-24T16:52:00.016+08:00

I wanted to actually update the blog about my trip to Bangkok but I now find myself in Johor Baru instead so I thought that I’ll write about that first. 4 of us have been shipped here to work on a project and it might take a little longer than first expected.

I’m now actually waiting for my Exchange Server to complete its installation so I thought I’d just blog about the hotel and the area in general first. This way I can update u guys as the days go by of me being here.

I’m staying at the Zon Regency Hotel which is at Stulang Laut. It’s quite a distance from the airport. The hotel is actually in a Duty Free Zone, cheap liquor and chocolates.

My room is on the 14th floor and I requested a king sized bed (just incase I had to stay over the weekend and Bomb came over for a visit) and non smoking. The room is pretty okie in size, pretty big for the price and it’s clean, average hotel clean.

Some pix’s…

The view from my room

This hotel however has 5 Star rating from me for the design which utilizes natural light to light up corridor areas in the day via this big sky roof.
Thumbs up for energy saving!

View from my floor

Next to the hotel is the Zon Mall with all the Chocolates and Liquor I spoke about earlier. The mall is nothing to shout about…pretty sad, I finished it in about 40 minutes the day we arrived while the guys were in Singapore…I couldn’t follow cause I forgot my passport… :(

After walking around for a bit, I decided to have dinner in this mamak shop in the mall. Food was so so only but pricing…KL standard. This is actually quite a general observation here in JB, food is actually quite pricy.

There are at least 5-6 pubs / clubs / bistros just outside the Mall / Hotel. Some sights from there. I was there pretty early so not that crowded yet.

Since the client’s new location is not ready as of yet, we are now camping in their current office. Super view of part of JB and also the the Woodland Checkpoint into Singapore.

I will be heading back to KL over the weekend and back to JB on Monday.
I have lots more to share…from eating on trees to pisang goring with sambal kicap…

So quick!

2008-07-16T10:23:00.002+08:00

Wow...I didn't even realize that it’s been a month since I posted anything. Am getting busier at work and just got back from a shopping trip in Bangkok.

I’m in the midst of sorting out the pictures from Bangkok and will start posting them real soon.

Stay tuned!

Safety?

2008-06-11T16:41:00.004+08:00

In the last couple of weeks, my housing area has become a favorite for thieves. It started out with small things being stolen like clothes hangers and then it grew to manhole covers and at the height of it last week – breaking into houses.

First they did it when no one was around, breaking in thru the back window and removing the grills before gaining access to the house. They would take their time cause they knew no one was gonna be coming home for quite some time.

Chronicles of the Events:
28th May (Wednesday) – House behind my lane hit in the day
29th May (Thursday) – Another house behind my lane hit at night
30th May (Friday) – House directly opposite mine hit. Had time to rummage thru the whole house. Even stole the wireless alarm that the owner had installed.
31st May (Saturday) – House in the next lane hit in the day. 3 occupants that were in the house (husband, wife and kid) held at knife point and robbed.

However, the main issue and concern of the residents is that

1 – Houses were being broken into every day

Same way of breaking in meaning it’s the same person. The fact that he moved from attacking houses when people were away to breaking in to houses on a Saturday morning with the occupants at home means he is getting braver cause he is not being caught…more on this in point 3.

2 – Opening of this new tunnel

The residents group has been communicating with MBPJ for quite sometime now to request that this tunnel is not opened.

We feel that it will cause a lot of inconvenience and risk in the sense of additional traffic driving thru the small roads in our housing area. Almost every household has 2 cars and 1 is parked outside cause the porch can only accommodate 1 car. Kids play in front of their houses in the evening cause the parents won’t let them wonder too far. What’s going to happen when the tunnel opens?
More over quite a few of the houses in the taman are still unoccupied making them an easy target for petty thefts. Most of these houses are already missing doors and windows.

House Missing Almost All Windows / Glass Doors

More traffic passing thru the area = more people being aware of this, further publicizing us as an easy target. There is currently one tunnel that is thru Taman Emas which is a short cut to Ara Damansara via Crimson and the residents living near this tunnel have been suffering the constant flow of traffic for years now…refer to article of the complain published in the Star some weeks back.

According to MBPJ, June 1st was the day that the tunnel thru our housing area was to be opened…its still closed till today…we are not complaining…the longer it stays close the happier we are.

Complain about other tunnel - published in the Star

3 – View map of distance between new police station and housing area.

Map is not to scale but should give you a rough idea

On that Friday when the owner of the house that got broken into got back and called the police they said that they are on their way. 20 minutes later, they called the owner back asking for directions!

On Saturday while the thieves were in the house, his neighbors were franticly trying to call the police but no one answered. Only manage to get the police when the thieves had gotten away and they came at their own pace some 30 minutes later. A resident provided the police with the bike plate number when they came.

What is the purpose of having that police station less than a KM away if this is the support and protection that residents in the area are going to get?

Many a times I have passed the police station during the night time when I can see into the office from the road and there is not even 1 officer in sight. The TV in the station will be on thought, probably watching itself.

Where are the cops when you need them? If they can’t keep the people safe when they need to then what are their exact purpose? I personally feel and I’m sure many other residents in my area would echo this that in the moment of need there will be little point to call the police if this is their response. It seems like they are just getting into the habit of coming and taking some photo’s and the report and then going back to the mamak for some free coffee…

Sorry Uncle Musa…but this is the image your boys are painting…

Most of you know my current living arrangement with Bomb’s job taking him away quite often so this series of events was getting us a little shaken and stirred. Every little bump in the night would keep me awake wondering what was happening outside the bed room door.

We had for quite sometime been toying with the idea of getting an alarm for the house and after the first burglary, we had decided it was time we got off our butts and invested in it. Not so much to protect the house but more to protect us when we are in the house. It’s not full proof but at least it’s better than not having any protection at all.

We decided to go with ADT cause they seemed to have the best package and most of the houses in my area have also gone with them. Got the number for the installer from one of my neighbors who is the go to guy for almost all kinda contacts. That Friday evening, David The Alarm guy came to see the house and give us his recommendation.

David an Australian has been in the security business for years now, from being an on the street under cover cop in Canada to now owning his own company dealing with security solutions here in KL. He has very personal reasons for wanting to provide people the sense of security; reasons that he shared with me but I think are too personal to blog about.

After a long chat about our expectations, we came out with a plan and design of what will be installed and when.

The installation was done on my birthday and adjusted a little on Tuesday. We initially installed pet immune motion sensors but they seemed to be less responsive and Rusty who is staying with us at the moment kept setting it off cause she sleeps in the hall…its supposed to be okie for anything below 18kg’s so either its more sensitive than that or Rusty is fatter than we thought! We have since changed them to the normal motion sensors which pick up movement better.

Many of my neighbors have also followed suit and installed the alarm systems in their homes. It’s been a busy but lucrative week for David as quite a few houses have installed the system for him. So far service from David has been excellent and he has came over more than once to explain the settings to me. Would recommend him anytime…

ADT has been very responsive too. Being new and basically idiots with this whole system, we have set the alarm off quite a few times and they have called us within 3-5 minutes almost each time to check if everything is okie. So far we are impressed.

So far since last Saturday, it has been relatively safe…no there have not been any extra patrol’s by the police but the residents have been more alert and have been more responsive in keeping an eye on each other. The association is also getting quotations for guards and also the price to grill the back lanes.

Are we on our own in this battle for a basic human right to SAFETY?

Turning 26

2008-06-05T11:51:00.002+08:00

Turned 26 yesterday…
It was a busy but superb day…
Bomb surprised me with a midnight visit cum b’day party...DP, Ruby and also Amarjit and Rita (my neighbors / dinner partners when Bomb is away) came over bring with them cake and everything.

They sang to me and we had a great time chatting. They left about 1ish cause they were all working in the morning. Bomb and I had taken the day off…I just didn’t want to have to work on my birthday…I wanted to have a relaxed day doing something’s for myself.

Tried to sleep in a little in the morning but couldn’t with all the call’s and SMS’s coming in. We went for a simple breakfast and then headed home cause we had our alarm installer coming in to install the alarm for the house (will write more about the alarm soon).

I then left to Bukit Bintang to learn more about the gift Bomb got me…

iPhone...

After all the education at the phone shop, I headed over to Times Square to walk about and to get my nails done.
I left for home before 5pm but it was raining cats and dogs. Bomb was supposed to pick me but it was almost impossible to get to the LRT Station…so I had to wait for quite a while before he came.

Headed home and then had to spend time with David the Alarm guy to learn about the alarm and its features and the way to program it. The installers made quite a mess while doing the installation. We covered almost everything at the places that they were drilling but they didn’t tell us when they started drilling right over our book case in our study room. They didn’t even move any of the things from the top of the book case…including some wedding gifts and the teddy bears from the wedding car…Bomb was furious when he realized…Anyway, David has asked us to give him the bill for the maid service and he will minus it from the installer’s fee…
Can’t get the maids to come in the next few days cause it’s either we won’t be home or the maids are not free.

Bomb and I finally got ready for dinner pass 9pm…it was too late to go to a fancy place and wait for food as we were both starving…so I requested for Burger King…happy food…so we got on the Harley and rode to Bangsar in the massive traffic only to get there and find out that the outlet had closed…sigh…then we headed to SS2 to get Burger King there but we couldn’t find that outlet either. It was pass 10pm by then so we just settled for a little café and had dinner there…at that point it was just to eat for survival.

Got home about 11pm…showered and had more b’day cake. We were both so tired. I wanted a relaxing girly day, instead I spent the day learning (with the phone and the alarm) and then hunting for dinner…hehehe

All in all, it was a super day. Bomb said that it can be my b’day again over the weekend and we can re-celebrate the day…this time hopefully it will be a wee bit more relaxing!

Biking To Phuket - Random Observations

2008-05-22T14:47:00.005+08:00

Businesses starting with Porn

Massage is really huge in Thailand

This manufacturer would have had to "tutup kedai / gulung tikar" if the main market for the product was Malaysia

Biking To Phuket - Final Part

2008-05-22T14:28:00.007+08:00

Woke up super early in the morning. Bomb and I were stoned…sleepy.

We left as scheduled at 7am, have to say we were low on energy. I was literally dosing off while on the bike, so very sleepy (sorry baby…hit your head many times that morning).

After about almost an hour of riding, we stopped in Trang for breakfast at a little coffee shop. The service was super excellent. We ordered our food while John went to look for something vegetarian. He was taking an extremely long time to get back, so Bomb went to look for him…
John came back a little later and now it was Bomb that was missing…while the boys were playing hide and seek…the food arrived…

Tasted better than it looks

A forced picture of John

When Bomb came back…he proudly shared what he had bought with John and I who just looked at him like he was crazy…

Durians at 8.30am…

After chilling for a bit there, we geared up. Since we weren’t in any particular hurry, we rode at a nice cruising speed so that we could also take in the local sights. After about almost an hour riding, we came to this stretch of road lined with stalls selling fresh pineapples…naturally we had to stop.

Focus on the Pineapple's and not the Cow in the background

We paid something like RM2.50 for a pineapple and asked the lady to cut it for us to eat immediately. It was so very sweet and juicey…good stuff.

Right behind the stalls was this kampong with kids running around and chickens and cows…cool…
Since there is so much pineapple in the area, they set up a little shed nearby to make jam from the pineapple that I’m assuming are already a little over ripe or unsold after a few days.

While Bomb and I were checking out the pineapple jam making, this is what John was doing:

It was almost noon so we geared up again and headed to the border.

The whole trip was amazing. The best part is traveling by road which gives you the chance to see loads of stuff and stop as and when you like. Super…I would do it again any day.

We reached back to Penang about 3pm. We were actually both so tired but I was so excited to be home that I couldn’t rest…all I want to do was to spend every moment I had with my mum.

We celebrated mum’s birthday which was on the 16th with a small dinner on the 15th…just Mum, Bomb and I. Unfortunately, she wasn’t feeling really well and she vomited most of the meal in the toilet of the restaurant…believe me, it wasn’t the food...we ate like pigs.

Rode back to KL on the 16th. The weather all the way was terrible. Heavy rain & 2 really bad storms…we were wet to our bones by the time we got back home…Well…no bike trip is complete without a shower from mother nature!

Biking To Phuket - Part 5

2008-05-20T13:08:00.011+08:00

Last day in Phuket…we slept so late and could hardly get up in the morning.
It was the height of Songkran.

We decided after a bit to leave in the morning itself cause it was going to take us sometime to get back to Krabi as we needed to go slowly since the roads were so very very and slippery from the water and powder.

Getting out of Phuket itself was quite a challenge. The roads in Phuket are rather small and congested which made everyone on the road the ideal target for those people at the side of the road to throw water at us…Mani and Aruna were the first bike and they got attacked the most. We were a little luckier cause we manage to get out of the way while the people refilled their buckets.

At one point a guy prepared to throw a bucket full of powder at us…Bomb and I immediately reached our hands out to him to stop him…water is one thing but powder on the bike and our jackets + clothes would have been a whole other thing.

As we exited Phuket, we stopped at this little beachside café kinda thing to relax a little before the ride back to Phuket. It’s a nice place with little huts along the shady beach.

After chit chatting and having a couple of drinks, we geared up to leave.
Prove that we were there…hehehe

We finally arrived in Krabi at 4pm. It was a slow but enjoyable ride. Mani and Aruna were really really missing their kids and decided that they wanted to carry on to the border that same day so that they could cut traveling time the next day and get back to KL as soon as possible. It would be a move they would regret later cause it was dark soon after they left and the roads did not have lights which meant they had to go really slow. They reached Danok at nearly Midnight and the border was already closed by then, so they had to look for a hotel to spend the night which was another challenge since many bikers had decided to spend the night in Danok.

John, Bomb and I on the other hand decided to go for a good massage. Everything was achy breaky. We tried the place Aruna tried on the first night that we were in Phuket. Although it was only a foot massage, they actually give u a full body massage, just that they pay more attention and spend more time on the legs.

Me getting a rub down

After the massage, we decided to walk around abit and explore Krabi cause we didn’t get the chance to the last time.
We were a little hungry and Bomb wanted to have some durian’s so we went to the nearby food market and looked around for what we could find to eat.Various kinda sambals:

We found some durian’s and after agreeing on the price, the lady cut it open for us…wasn’t that great.

After that we walked up to another street that had this long night market thing going on. You have not been to Thailand if you don’t see a vendor selling fried creepy crawlies

When I asked the vendor if the insects were yummy, this is what she did

We spent most of the night exploring the market and I picked up some hand made accessories for a bargain price.

Random pictures from the night mostly revolving around food

No Thai night market is complete without some entertainment! There were these lady boy's dancing on a temporary stage and it was havoc...Mind u...it's in a open air night market and not some dingy night spot.

After all that, we headed back to the hotel for some shut eye. We planned to leave at 7am…I was rather anxious to get back to Penang and spend some time with my mum…

Next: Journey Back Home…

Biking To Phuket - Part 4

2008-05-09T10:26:00.007+08:00

Day two in Phuket started really late…almost noon. Bomb and I slept like we had been drugged.
Woke up and were hungry as hell…so we walked abit and popped by Nicky’s Handle Bar to catch up with the rest of the gang who were there while John serviced his bike.

We walked around for abit looking for some food. In one of the lorong’s we found a few Thai ladies selling some thing that looked like mini pancakes.

We got about 7 pieces for 40 Baht.
Yummy. Some had corn, some had spring onion leaves and another that I can’t recall now. Good stuff.

Then we came to another lane that had some stalls. We ordered coconut shake and also a mango shake. Bomb excitedly ordered fried rice and told the lady to make it 1.5 portions…it was so much we struggled to finish it. Over all – yummy.

So with our tummies about to burst, we got together with the rest and headed to the beach. On the way we saw this lady selling grilled chicken. She actually carries around her “stall” on her shoulders – something similar to the old fashion nasi kandar system. Marinated chicken grilled over coal. Tasted great with the home made chilly sauce. Juicy and full of flavor.

Larger than life Human vs Predator figurines; on the stage that they had set up on the beach.

My Bomb

After checking out some of the stalls at the beach, we headed back to Jungceylon Mall. The night earlier, we had spotted helmets that we really liked so we had told the guy to get us the sizes and that we would pick it up today.
Alas, when we got there, we were told that they didn’t have the helmets in the size and colour that we wanted. We were rather disappointed. Nothing much we could do anyway. We got a few t-shirts and continued walking around in the mall.

The air con was a welcome compared to the blazing heat outside.

In the mall, I spotted a lot of facial centers. They are not exactly private as u can see

Everyone walking around in the mall gets to see u getting ur facial…however all the centers were actually full. I guess it caters more for the quickie facial.

Hard Rock café is also opening its new outlet in Phuket so Bomb and I went over and chatted with the PR people for the outlet.
Chatting with them gave Bomb and I the chance to get a little goofy with their promotional props in return for an advertisement…

After spending sometime at the mall, we headed back to the hotel. John wanted to see to his bike and it was just too hot to do anything out doors so I headed back to the hotel with an intention to have a little afternoon nap while Bomb played with the boys.
Bomb joined me a little later and we stocked up on some sleep cause it was gonna be a long night.

We woke up and got ready. By getting ready I mean we water proved all our electronics cause it was the eve of Songkran.
Most Thai’s celebrate Songkran on the day itself but it was the foreigners that were getting into the mood on the eve. Water guns of all shapes and size were being sold and almost every foreigner was walking around with their gun loaded.

Since it was still early, we wanted to go to the beach party. Bomb and I wanted to look for some saddle bags and also gloves for me…
On the way to the beach, we passed thru the night seafood food court…check out the size of the seafood and so fresh too. We didn’t stop cause we were supposed to have our dinner at the beach.

The party was in full blast by the time we got there. Never in my life did I imagine that I would meet Captain Jack Sparrow himself.

This guy actually travels to bike feasts selling his hand made stuff. He is such a fan of Jack Sparrow that he’s even got a Thai driving license with his name listed as Jack Sparrow. Forged or not I’m not sure. I later saw him walking around the party showing off his skills with a sword…

We chilled for a bit. Bomb managed to find a suitable saddle bag for a super bargain price but we had no luck on my gloves and our helmets. A few seats away from us was this lady:

She had gotten into an accident about 2 months back while biking from Phuket to Koh Samui

She has been in the hospital since. However this grandma of 2, took leave from the hospital that night just to come to the beach and chill out at the party.
She still had her leg in a cast and also the drip connector (don’t what you call that thing) in her hand. Now that’s what I call hardcore commitment!

It was about 11.30 and we decided to go on and check out what was happening at Bangla Road. On the way, we were already getting shot at by water guns from all directions; there was no way to remain dry. Instead of fighting, we just decided to give in and enjoy.
Some people were actually throwing and shooting with ice cold water…brrrrrrrrrr

The walk down Bangla Road was the height of it. We were totally drenched by the time we got to the other end.
If you can’t beat them join them. We went to the other party and we were literally taking water from the melted ice in the coolers that were keeping the beers chilled. I was very busy attacking people and never realized when one of the guys came and poured a whole bucket of icy water + ice down my shirt…man…I can still feel the numbness.

My jeans were so heavy cause they were wet that I could feel them falling off my ass.
We headed back to the hotel a little later and wanted to freshen up and head out for a hot drink.

We did freshen up and we did go and find some hot drinks. Call it being Malaysian – we are so used to our 24 hours Mamak that we think that places like this exist else where too. We didn’t have any luck finding any food / drinks at 4.30am so we headed back to the hotel but not before we were shot in a serangan hendap. We were a little upset, since we had already cleaned up and changed into dry clothes but there was little we could do. Bomb and I picked up a snack at the 7-11 like mart and headed back for some zzz’s.

We planned to head out of Phuket the next day.

Biking To Phuket - Part 3

2008-05-05T16:33:00.009+08:00

After freshing up, we headed to the bike party…or at least that was our plan. We spent most of the night actually looking for the party. There are actually 2 people organizing the function and they cant get along with each other so each decided to have their own event / party…hence all the confusion.

We headed to Jungceylon Mall. 1 of the events was supposed to be here.

We walked around and finally found the place…I give this organizer 3 out of 10 for signs to the event…

Bikes on show, lots of drinking and a tattoo competition. Pictures of the contestants…some needed to go to the gym really badly if they want to walk around shirtless like that…

Couldn’t really figure out who won cause the host was only talking in Thai…

We met some other Malaysian Bikers there that knew Bomb.

This guy
And this is his gf…hmm....

Bomb...attracted to the colourful hair...takes guts I tell you to carry that hairstyle!

After spending some time there and having a couple of drinks we decided to go find the other party that was supposed to be by the beach.
As we were leaving the mall, we saw this guy

A closer look at what he was selling

Selling fish and eggs in front of a mall full of tourist and bikers at about 12 midnight…why my friend why?

Next it was time to visit the very famous for all the wrong reasons Bangla Road
This place…where do I begin…

Transvestites – Check
Bar + Loads of Drinking – Check

There are bars named after almost every animal in the animal kingdom...

Kinky Clothings - Check

There are so many people trying to persuade you to follow them to their A Go Go bars for all kinds of alleged shows that their girls can perform…Ping Pong Show, Water Show…yadda yadda yadda.

Aruna and I being in Phuket for the 1st time wanted very much to go and see what was all the hype about these shows.
So off we went with one of the guys to the bar…he said No Entry charge, we only have to get drinks…so it “seemed” like a bargain.
When we got in there, there were these girls / ladies dancing in very little on. They were not exactly hot…one even had a scar from a C-Section she must have had sometime earlier…
So we ordered some drinks and asked when the show would start and they guy told us…2 minutes 2 minutes…

Boy oh boy…2 minutes later, we saw 3 girls…all topless come up to the stage…mind u, we were sitting at the end of the stage so we had the best view in the house…
Since we were expecting a Ping Pong Ball Show…we were actually looking for where they were keeping the props…

Next moment…we had these 3 ladies all naked like the day they were born, standing at the edge of the stage…and then it all happened…girl on girl action…
To make it a whole lot more interesting, all the action was happening right at the edge of the stage next to our drinks…hmm

The guys didn’t know how to react and neither did Aruna and I…the girl on girl action show lasted for about 10 minutes…we left shortly afterwards…everyone was unsure about the polite way to react…

Then Aruna’s husband Mani who insisted to pay for the drinks dropped the bomb…
A bottle of beer which usually cost about ≈ 40 Baht costed 400 Baht…total he paid for 5 beers = 2000 Baht which is ≈ RM200…

Cheated – Check
Upset – Check

All to see some fat woman jiggle her bits…I could have looked in the mirror for that…
If Bomb goes to these kinda places while he is away…I have nothing to worry about…

After walking around aimlessly we finally saw another place that had a party…so off we went. There were so many mini bars set up at this place and then I saw this

A mobile ATM…something I have not seen in Malaysia before…now u can drive away with the money easier…

After chilling for a bit…we got on a Tut Tut with the intention to go back to the hotel…everyone was so worn out already…suddenly we found the beach party we had been looking for all night…stopped the Tut Tut and all got out to party again…

Party was at

Finally got back about 4am…tired like hell.

Biking To Phuket - Part 2

2008-04-25T11:24:00.013+08:00

Day two started rather slow…after a few giggle sessions about my adventures the night before, we headed to a vegetarian shop for breakfast. The Vegetarian shop is just around the corner from the hotel so we took a walk there.

Every meal here begins with loads of greens…

They also gave us some fruit. It tasted like langsat but not as sour sweet. I didn’t manage to get the name. Thai hospitality is just amazing…I have never been offered anything extra with my meal at no cost here in Malaysia.

We ordered noodles and I have to say, it was pretty good. This is coming from someone who totally doesn’t enjoy having noodles in the morning for breakfast and I actually finished the whole bowl. Topped up with iced coffee…good stuff.

They have quite a large spread of dishes too

Despite the language barrier, I manage to explain to the lady working in the shop that I wanted her to come up front and pose for me…and she sure did!

Taxi in Krabi

The wife of one of the bikers in Krabi owns a saloon, so we thought why not go and give her some support and at the same time get some well deserved pampering too.

Her name is Pom…yes Pom. She is such a jovial character although she’s not been feeling too good for sometime now…in her broken English and our broken Thai, she told us that the DR told her that her white blood cells are more than her red blood cells. Her hair has been dropping in clumps with all the treatment (chemo I’m guessing). Despite all this, you will not see a moment of sadness on her face.Cool…

I decided to get a pedicure and manicure. I hardly get time to pamper myself in KL so since I was on holiday I totally deserved it…even more when I saw the price ≈RM40 here for both a pedi and a mani. That would cost me something like almost RM80 here…cheap cheap!

There was this old aunty who was also getting her nails done and she was as particular about the colour and shape of her nails just like any 20 year old…really cute

After we got our nails done and Aruna her hair, we headed back for some lunch and to pack up. We were gonna be heading to Phuket later in the afternoon.
I didn’t really feel like eating much for lunch and Bomb was also still stuffed from breakfast so we decided to just have something light…

Pizza that we bought from 7-11. Microwave available in store for you to heat it up and eat on the go…yummy

Then it was time to pack up and head out to Phuket. Another group of Malaysian bikers met us at our hotel and we convoyed together. We later meet up with a huge group for Malaysia and we rode together with them.

Videos are a little blurry…was on the bike while taking them.

Greeting us as we entered Phuket:

We reached Phuket about 7pm. When we checked out the hotel that was pre booked, it didn’t have an air conditioner and the weather in Phuket was unbelievably HOT…

Bomb scouted around for another hotel nearby that had A/C and we did find a good place at 700Baht per night ≈ RM70 a night.
Cheap and it was cozy…

We later found out that the orchids on the bed were strategically placed to cover the holes in the towels…

To be honest, while Bomb was looking for the hotel, I was stuffing my face…was just too hungry cause we shared the slice of pizza for lunch and had not had anything since…as if to complete our earlier meal…our friends had already ordered….Yes Pizza by the time we got to the makan shop cum bar called Nikky Handle Bar – very bike inspired.

So after eating, we all headed back to our rooms to freshen up and gear up for the party...More Soon...

Biking to Phuket - Part 1

2008-04-18T16:38:00.013+08:00

If you have been following my chronicles you would see that I have been bitten by the traveling bug. I have always enjoyed traveling, going to new places and seeing and experiencing different things. This year I wanted to make this a reality and I have to say, it’s superb so far.

Last week, Bomb and I along with some other friends went on a bike trip to Phuket…yes Phuket.

It’s about 1000km one way to Phuket from KL and believe me that makes a hell of a journey…

We left KL about 7.30am and headed up North to the Border. We were in Penang by 12pm, made good time and had excellent weather.
Traveling with us were friends of our’s Mani and his wife Aruna. We stopped by in Seberang Jaya to pick up the camera from mum’s place and scare the living day lights out of my cartoon dog who couldn’t recognize Bomb and I in our gear…

We then refueled and headed to Changloon. We wanted to get to the border as soon as possible cause we passed a lot of bikes also heading north and we wanted to clear the checks at the border before they all arrived.

In Changloon, we waited for another buddy to join us – John who lives in Langkawi. He was riding up and going to join us there for the trip to Phuket.

In Changloon, we also changed our money to Thai Baht and got the necessary insurance for the bike.

John was a little delayed and we were so hungry…so it was time to chow down.

Sorry…but this is the only picture I managed to take of the meal that I had…

Leftovers - Egg,vegi and rice at a local Indian Shop

Assam Drink that I had while waiting for the money to be changed and Insurance done.

Since John was going to take sometime, we decided to go ahead and cross the border first and wait for him on the other side…

Me and My Passport and Documents

Sadao Boundary Post

Bikes

I have no idea why but it seems to be a common practice among the staff at the Thai Border’s immigration that each passport should be accompanied by RM1 or 2…you are told to just give it to them and not wait for them to ask – which they will shamelessly if u happen to ~~not want to give~~ forget. No one is spared…it’s our way of “thanking” them for the excellent job they do…
However…I think it’s pretty silly that they want our Malaysian Ringgit instead of their Baht which now holds more value…

John joined us a little later and we soon crossed into Dannok, the first township you will reach after crossing the Sadao Borderpost.
It’s very humid and hot in Dannok and the traffic is also rather huru hara.
Stopped over in Dannok for a quick drink and Mani wanted to reload his Thai Sim Card to make it cheaper to call home. He and his wife were already missing their two boys.

Dannok Town

The 3 bikes in our group

Me...Cooling down

Next stop after Dannok was at Phatthalung to refuel at what looked like a cowboy gas station.

After the little break, we headed to Krabi thru Trang.
If you can see I have linked the locations to pages from Wikitravel just incase you want more info about the location itself.

We finally arrived in Krabi at about 7ish. That’s some 12 hours of biking…my bum was a little numb.

Krabi Town

We checked in to our hotel for the night – City Hotel…Price : 600 Baht a night (≈ RM60)
The room was sad if compared to the lobby of the hotel.

Lobby

After a well deserved bath…we gathered in the lobby before we headed out for food

Dead Tired

We met up with some fellow M’sian there and along with a Thai friend, headed to have some famous Thai Chicken Rice…

My Meal - Chicken Rice Thai Style with Vegi

John being a vegetarian had to go hunt a little for his food…but he came back with some extremely yummy stuff.

After dinner, we decided to walk around a little bit to take in the sights and sounds of Krabi at night…I don’t know if it was the part of town that we were in but it was extremely quiet. As we were walking around I saw this:

Open air cinema – the flash of my camera scared them…

Then it came to the story of the night…
We wanted to get a massage…I mean you are in Thailand…You must get a massage…Right?

Well Bomb picked a place and got the girls to come to our hotel - 3 of them – 1 for John and 1 each for the 2 of us…the plan was so that they could massage us in the room and we wouldn’t have to walk back after and could just go to sleep…

TRIGGER POINT # 1
So the girls come and they keep saying how cute and pretty and small I was and how “hot” Bomb was. I don’t think they realized they were making the wife in me upset.

TRIGGER POINT # 2
The lady massaging Bomb was good and mine was like crap…she was actually learning from the other lady while massaging me + she was touching me like either her fingers were broken so she couldn’t put in the force or that I had scabies and she didn’t want to catch it…

TRIGGER POINT # 3
Bomb’s lady touching him…I know u got to do that when you want to massage someone but I think TRIGGER POINT # 2 was getting to me a bit too much…hence making it very irritating that she was touching him…I know…it’s silly

TRIGGER POINT # 4
When my lady was still taking jabsw at me and Bomb’s was massaging the crap out of him…I was jealous(mostly cause my lady was doing a rotten job)…Flashes of another woman in My Bed with My Man came to mind…So dramatic..

Anyway, I was a pretty unhappy puppy there after and got rid of them quick. Mani, Aruna and John found the whole episode pretty hilarious when I shared it with them the next morning…

Well…at least Bomb has lived his dream of having 3 women in bed with him at one time and I was there to supervise that NOTHING happened! That’s one fantasy down the drain for him…and something I will never let happen again! hehehe

More on the trip soon…

Redang Trip - Final Part

2008-04-08T14:36:00.011+08:00

Last day in Redang.
I sure as hell didn’t want to leave.
The sea was the calmest since we got there and it was bright but not hot…the prefect day to swim and laze by the beach…

Unfortunately, mum had a 2pm flight to catch so we needed to leave the resort on the first boat out which was at 10am.
Breakfast was Nasi Lemak and toast. Yummy

Then it was time to take some pictures to proof that I was actually there!

The resort is actually also a nesting ground for the green sea turtles. Every year, the resort protects the nests and then collects the hatchlings and keeps them till they are a little bigger and not so vulnerable. This is the resorts way to help in maintaining the population of the green turtle. If not the hatchlings get eaten up very soon after they get into the water by predators.

This is one of the hatchlings…

It has stayed in the resort for almost a year now. Its brother’s and sister’s have all been released but this little guy has a little problem. Its back legs are very much shorter than its front legs making it difficult for it to swim…hence it has some what became the pet of the resort.

After a few goodbye and all that we boarded our boat and were off to Merang. The seas were so much calmer and the ride was so much less bumpy.

When we got to the jetty, the resorts pickup was already waiting for to take the rest of us to town and to drop off mum at the airport.

We dropped off mum at the airport by about 12.30 and I was then alone to explore Kuala T’ganu till my flight at 7.20pm.
This is when my solo sight seeing adventure started.

The pickup dropped me off at the resort’s KT (short for Kuala T’ganu) office at about 1ish and I had 4 hours plus to kill…so I decided to take a walk and check out the area.

In KT you will see these hop on hop off busses…

They are fully decked out in traditional design and are airconditioned…pretty cool.
I didn’t take the bus though since I wanted to take in the sights on foot.

As I was walking, I saw this advert on a building across the road…

Sinai Coli yang Sesuai(The most suitable Bra...)

The walking was taking a lot out of me and I had a gang of mice playing the lambada in my tummy…it was time to get some food. I had passed a few shops earlier but it was just too far to turn around and go back that direction.

Fate would have it that as I walked pass the bus station, I happened to ask this lady and her daughter where I could find some nice authentic KT food…She told me that she knew of one shop nearby and that she was walking in that direction and I could follow her.
So I did…

Since she had been kind enough to walk with me to the shop, I invited her to join me for a drink…and she did.

Kak Jah & Her Daughter

This is what I had

Fried stuffed fish, chilly prawns, cabbage and rice + a sirap limau.

Yummy…especially since I was so freaking hungry.

Kak Jah asked me if I had seen the whole of KT so I told her that I was just walking around aimlessly…at that very moment, she appointed herself as my official tour guide…I had no problems besides the fact that she kept asking me to go to her house if I had more time…my mum who was at the airport waiting for her flight further fueled my anxiety by telling me maybe Kak Jah was interested in getting me married to her son…

Anyway with my self appointed guide, we headed off the check out the local sights.

First stop – Pasar Besar Kedai Payang….this market place sells all kinds of food stuff on the ground floor and loads of deco stuff on the first floor.

Graffiti on the wall in the market area…I like.

However the trip to the market ended on a sad note because I saw this as I exited:

Turtle egg on sale…in Redang these eggs are protected and here sold as just normal food stuff. Loads of stalls selling them openly.

Next stop = Bukit Puteri.
It was believed that a princess used to live her and she used to be very giving. People in the area kept asking from her till one day she got really sad and ran away…don’t know if it’s a true story but it’s what Kak Jah told me.

Across Bukit Puteri, there is a floating restaurant….

Then we went to the Park….walked around a little bit and then told myself it was time to ditch the tour guide and make my way back to the resort’s office…

So said my good byes and I started walking…and walking and walking….I just followed my built in GPRS (in my brain) and thought I could find my way…

But man was it a mistake!

Instead of me walking towards the office, I was actually walking in the opposite direction and taking a super long route…I walked and walked and walked… Finally fearing that I might land up in Kelantan, I stopped to ask someone and he told me I was about 2 km from the office…so okie…2 km…I can do it and on my way if I see a bus or cab I will get on it instead…he said go straight after the roundabout.. So again I walked and walked and walked…I finally reached the roundabout. I was so hot and thirsty by then so I stopped at a petrol station to get some water. When I asked the cashier how far was I from the office…she said another 3 km…I was ready to collapse.

I had no choice so I kept walking…
My heart jumped with joy when I saw this

The entrance to KT’s China Town, where the office is located.

I quickly found the first shop and sat down…my feet were aching and I was hot.

I needed a super sugar filled drink and something to eat…so I ordered this

Rojak

Dragon Fruit with Cocunut Milk

After that I headed back to the office…
As I was in the van heading to the airport, I suddenly saw that I was at the park again…and it was just around the corner from the office….
Which meant…?

Red Arrow = The way I took

Green Arrow = The way I should have taken

Shit…

Got to the airport and was totally ready to head home…I just needed to get back home.
The new KT airport is fully built structurally but a lot of deco stuff is being done to create the traditional Malay look. However at the rate they are going, its going to be years before it is all completed.

This guy was painting the same pillar when we dropped mum off at 12.30...still painting it when I reached the airport at 6.

Checked in and flight was 30 minutes delayed…its okie as long as I could get home…

When I reached Subang, my car doors refused to open because I had dropped the remote the day we left. I don’t know why but I kept my house keys in my bag…maybe it was just god being kind to me. I had to take a cab for RM23 from the airport to my house (actual distance = 7 minutes) and another RM10 to get back to the airport with my spare key to open the car door.

By the time I got home…I was having a pounding head ache and was sticky all over from the “long walk” I took earlier in the afternoon…man, what a way to end a wonderful holiday!

Redang Trip - Part 3

2008-04-08T09:54:00.012+08:00

Day 2 in Redang…

There is nothing better than waking up to the sound of the waves. Woke up early on day two and had breakfast. While we had breakfast, we saw the resident squirrels trying to get the visitors to feed them…cute little fellows.

After that we were off for another snorkeling trip. Since I can swim, I tagged along with another guide who was more than happy to take me alone and show me around the spot that we had stopped…holding my hand and everything. It was fine with me since I was getting a personal tour of the whole area. At one point, I had Nemo swimming in my hands – very cool.

Nemo...

The Real Nemo - Clown Fish

After about an hour there we headed back for lunch…swimming makes you really hungry. We ate and showered and since it was just too hot to do anything else, we settled in for a nap. I simply luv being on holidays.

After the nap, we suited up again for our last snorkeling trip. This time we were aiming to spot larger black tip reef sharks and the hump head parrot fish which is usually found in that area. Once again I tagged with the guide and he took me around. I got bitten by like a million sea bugs in the morning and in the afternoon and was not sure where to scratch cause I was itchy all over (mom came back with a pretty bad allergic reaction from what I think was a mix of sea bug bites, sun block and the sea water, she was itchy all over for a couple of days)

We were lucky enough to spot a school of hump head parrot fish (even saw one poop) and also a slightly larger black tip reef shark…as much as I was in admiration of the shark, I couldn’t help but to hear the theme of Jaws play in my head.

Black Tip Reef Shark

Hump Head Parrot Fish

We headed back about 4ish and had tea. On our way back, we made arrangements with one of the snorkeling guides to take us out later that evening to the reef right behind the resort to spot more sharks and turtles so we headed out again after tea. We did manage to see 2 green turtles but no shark…however; I asked the trip to be cut short because I was just feeling so out of breath. I think all the snorkeling in the sun was taking a toll on me. I felt my head built with pressure and knew it was time to call it a day was. We headed back after about 30 minutes and 2 turtles…

Green Sea Turtle

All in all, I was very pleased with what we had seen while snorkeling and felt a renewed need to get my PADI certification done so that I can explore further than just the surface of the sea… Showered and just chilled on the hammock at the back of the resort enjoying the breeze and the amazing view. Later that night, we headed for a BBQ dinner and drinks with the owner of the resort Kevin. Very entertaining fellow, I luv the personal touch that the visitors get from the manager and the owner of the resort... Later that night we went for a walk on the beach with one of the snorkeling guides.The next day was a real adventure…while share more about it soon.

Before that, just some views of the beach…

Some really interesting captions from the resorts dive centre

Redang Trip - Part 2

2008-04-07T10:55:00.006+08:00

Part 2 of the Redang Trip.

After we put our things away in the room, we headed out for a walk around the resort and also to lunch.
The view was just simply amazing.

As all meals were included in the package, we headed to the cafeteria kinda place for lunch.

What was on the menu? Ginger Kicap Chicken Chicken, Dried Chilies Squid, Ladies Fingers and also Crab Balls.

Pretty good stuff. After lunch, we headed back to our room cause we were both in need for some good 40 winks before we headed out for our first snorkeling trip.

So woke up about 1.30pm and then got dressed or is it undressed into my bikini and headed down to the meeting point to go snorkeling. Sorry, no pictures of our snorkeling trips as we were told to not bring along our camera’s since we would need to leave it on the shore when snorkeling and our camera wasn’t one of those that you could take into the water with you. My next investment would have to be a camera that I can take into the water.

We headed to the Marine Park…entrance to the Marine Park is at RM5 per person. The snorkeling guide collects it and passes it on to the Marine Park authorities.
Everyone at every point being in the sea here is advised to wear a life jacket due to the sometimes uncertain currents.

We held on to a large float with one of the guides and he took us out to show us the fishies and all that…since I had no camera, I couldn’t capture any of those pictures for the blog…but what I did see with my eyes were incredible.
Since most of these fishes are hiding in their homes, the guides bring some bait along with them to entice the fishes out. We saw a 4 feet + moray eel that stays under the corals and a super duper huge grouper that lived in one of the cracks in between the corals. The guide skin dives to bring these fishes up nearer the surface while we watch on from the top. It was simply amazing. This was one of the main differences of the snorkeling experience compared to when we were in Tioman.

In Tioman, the boat guy just dropped us off and left us to swim and explore by ourselves. Being novice’s we missed out on a lot of treasures that the sea had. Here in Redang, the guide takes you and shows you the stuff…which makes the experience a whole lot more mind blowing…

After that I followed another guide and we went further out to a ship wreck to try and spot a black tip reef shark and we did spot a baby one…however only from a distance. The currents were just too strong near the wreck and it wasn’t safe to go any closer…

After about an hour + at the Marine Park, we headed back to the resort…on the way we saw a school of Green Sea Turtles swimming together but the went under quick when we approached….

Came back to the resort famished and headed for tea (I was starting to like this food inclusive package very much…)
After that, mum and I went for a walk along the beach to explore the area and just chill before going back to bath.

Views from along the beach.

One of the largest resorts there. When their occupants arrived at the Marine Park, there were more humans in the water than fishes.

A beach bar / dance floor kinda thing

A mini food joint

This lady was wearing a complete Salwar Kamez with the dupatta and all when she went snorkeling...

We then headed back to clean up. After a well deserved good warm shower, we went to explore the little beach mini marts and check out the stuff that they were selling.

I spotted this:

It was obvious then that when you are at a beach resort, even chores are made more fun with funky cleaning aids…

Dinner was as yummy as lunch…

Fish Sambal, Vegi & Squid Balls. There was also beef that I don’t take.

The buffet line

After dinner, we walked over the wooden bridge that connects the resort to the rest of the island and had ice cream on the other side.

We then came back and chit chatted with the guide who manages the resort (Steven) and he later took us to the shore in front of the resort to look for blue sand.
Blue sand is actually plankton that was washes up to the beach during the high tide. You can see this shining bright blue dot on the beach but die really quick if you pick them up. Because it was the beginning of the season, we only spotted 2…how sad but at least we got to see it. They are only visible on nights that the moon is not bright.

We called it a night after that…

Redang Trip - Part 1

2008-03-28T17:40:00.009+08:00

Yes…I’m back from Redang with a wicked tan and post holiday blues.
Redang was all I imagined and more. It looked exactly like something out of a postcard and has lots to offer a sea lover.

My mom and I hopped on an early morning flight from Subang to Kuala T’ganu. When I say early morning, I really mean early morning…7am. We checked in at 6am + and we literally zombies in the cold airport. Flight was pretty comfortable since we didn’t have to fight for seats and took a little more than an hour.

When we got to the airport, we headed to a taxi counter immediately cause we needed to be in Merang by 9am to catch the boat to the island. I didn’t pre book the transfer from the airport to Merang Jetty because the agency I was working with for the trip just couldn’t give me the information I needed. Bad move cause a cab for the 2 of us to Merang Jetty costed RM40 compared to only RM20 with most agencies…well…it was just the beginning of my cab woes – more on that at the end of the trip.

When we got to Merang, we saw that each and every resort had their own jetty and also their own boats/ferries to transport their customers only…hence we had to hunt down our jetty which turned out to be the smallest and scariest looking one among the many.

Next scare – the little tiny boat that we were gonna take for that 45 minute ride to Redang…

Mum all strapped up in the life jacket. I was seated next to a carton of eggs...

View as we were leaving the jetty

The seas were rather rough being that its just after the monsoon and our boat driver / pilot had packed the back of the boat so much (plus a plus size family that had taken up the back of the boat) we were hitting into the water really hard every little wave. We had to stop half way to rearrange the things, mostly the stock for the resort…the journey was slightly smoother there after but I couldn’t help but to hold on real tight and also pray because we were so tiny in this huge open ocean with so many bigger boats passing by us…it was scary.I asked myself why I was on that boat and why was I going to Redang…fear makes u think of a lot of things…(p/s: Baby…I luv u k….)

Anyway, we got there in one piece, a little shaken and stirred but non the less excited about being there…I swear, the view as you are approaching the island,simply amazing...made the boat ride so worth it…

As we reached the shore, the guy who manages the hotel came up to the shore to great us (+1 for staying at a small resort). We had finally arrived at Redang Reef Resort.
After some briefing about the hotel, the food and the snorkeling trips, we were handed our room keys…ironically room # 16, the same date we are anticipating in April when mum shall officially retire from what feels like a million years of working…

Our Resort - taken from shore

The rooms

The room was seriously bare minimum; we were a little disappointed in the beginning, especially since we cancelled our booking in Berjaya Beach at the last minute to stay on the other side of the island.
But coming to think of it, although it was a little bare, the other things and the staff of the resort totally made up for it.

A single bed in the room

The Queen sized bed

Dresser

Loo

Hot Shower using Water from the ground

Lots more on the trip soon…starting with what I had for lunch… : )

Quick Update

2008-03-17T11:04:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates since the Pangkor stories. I have been extremely busy on the work and home front, trying to sort everything thing out before leaving for my next trip to Redang...which happens to be tomorrow.

Work has been pretty crazy with weekend roll outs of my project that will be carrying on for another 3 weekends...yup, I will be working the weekend immediately after getting back from Redang. If you are anything like me, you will need a day or so after a holiday to get your act together - a luxury I'm not going to get this time around. Last weekend roll out will be on the 5th of April.

Home has been crazy too with my neighbour building and then breaking this Great Wall of China that he built causing me a lot of inconvenience. It’s getting harder day by day to be nice and smile when I find all my things covered in cement at the end of the day. I hope the nightmare will end soon and he will be done with his remodeling by the time I get back from Redang.

Will update with stories and pictures once I’m back.

Pangkor Trip - Final Part

2008-03-05T14:50:00.005+08:00

Last day in Pangkor, woke up and freshened up and headed out for breakfast.
Breakfast menu was slightly different today. I opted for a pancake with strawberry syrup, tea and fresh watermelon juice.
Bomb had the same thing as the day before…

After that we went for a swim at the nearby beach…was fun just bumming around for yet another day. The swim ended when Bomb whacked himself in the eye with the goggles…cartoon. However, we manage to see quite a few fishes swimming really near the beach and at one point were surrounded by a whole school of small fishes…really cool…but a flash back of Jaws came to mind…were the fishes swimming so near to the shore cause Jaws was nearby??? He he he…vivid imagination…I know.

After the swim, we went back, showered, packed and checked out.
We got back on our horse…I mean our bike and headed to town to get some anchovies…yummy yummy. Yes, even the slipper episode couldn’t stop me…

We bought some anchovies and this ikan bulu ayam and then we headed to the jetty to catch the ferry. We were actually doing everything quickly cause we had lunch plans…yes more food.

We were heading to Kampung Koh for lunch. Bomb went there some 10 years ago and my hero said he could find the place and he knew where the best shop was, even promised me my first try at Todi. In the end, I realized that I had been cheated. We drove around for almost an hour and finally found Kampung Koh and some food.
We picked this shop…

After the amount we had been eating while in Pangkor, one would think that we would know better but not to pig out anymore…but no…we had:

Some Snail thingy

Black Pepper Crabs

Oyster Omelet

Kailan

Fresh Cocunut

Condition once we were done

After all that, we felt like we were about to burst. We vowed to not eat for the rest of the day. Less then 20 minutes later…we were having this…

I know never learn.

After that, we locked the car doors and traveled non-stop all the way back to KL…
For dinner, Bomb wiped up a fruit salad with the jackfruit and mangoes that we bought from Kampung Koh, along with some oranges and fruit yogurt…our idea of eating light!

I needed “help” the next few days to get all that food out of my system...

That’s the end of the Pangkor Journal…overall, it was a superb well deserved break!

Pangkor Trip - Part 5

2008-03-03T16:12:00.005+08:00

After all that fishy business…we were hungry again.
We road around till we came to this small stall located right next to the Cargo Jetty.

The makcik sells many different kinds of kuih’s. We ordered some Cucur Udang (Prawn Puffs?), tauhu + fish cakes. Came with this really good kuah kacang. To drink we both had fresh coconut…yummy stuff.

Total for the both of us = RM 7.80

Me in 1950

After that we rode around the island, this time going into all the small lanes to explore further…

Before we knew it, it was eating time again! I know, as I’m writing this, I’m starting to believe what Bomb said that I don’t eat anymore, I devour…

We decided to try another place along Nipah Bay. This place is called Mamah Sea Food.
We picked a different kind of fish to be grilled and this time we also picked some prawns and squid because they were so fresh.

The result:

Sambal Prawns

Grilled Squid Grilled Fish

The fish didn’t have the typical fishy taste because they soaked the fish in this:

This is a mixture of orange peel, lime juice and the skins, asam keping and asam jawa…This takes the fishy smell and fishy taste way…

Total bill for the both of us with drinks = RM 35...happy.

After that meal…it was a repeat of the night before…full stomachs and snoring couple…

Pangkor Trip - Part 4

2008-02-28T18:57:00.005+08:00

Day 2 in Pangkor, we woke up early cause we wanted to make the most of our day.
The room included an outdoor breakfast for 2 in a very nice cozy café in the front of the hotel.

Their standard breakfast included:

Eggs – ur choice of scramble or full boiled
A Slice of toast with butter and jam
A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice - not the bottled stuff
Choice of coffee or tea

After breakfast we went to the beach to meet up with this guy called Ayin who ran this beach boy hut that included boat trips to the nearby island just opposite of Nipah Bay.
A boat ride for the two of us including the snorkels came up to RM50.

1st stop of the boat ride was Mentaggor Island to see sea cucumbers. The water around this island was clear enough for you to see the bottom of the sea some 3 meters down and be able to see the sea cucumbers. However we were advised not to swim along this beach because there were many sea urchins on the sea bed.

After seeing the sea cucumbers, we went to the next island called Giam Island. On one side of this island, you can see many different species of fishes (including the parrot fish we so heartlessly ate the night before) and on the other side of the island, corals.
However, the visit to this island was EXTREMELY disappointing. The beach and the water along the shore was EXTREMELY polluted with rubbish. So much of rubbish that the fishes who usually eat very happily, were not interested to even look at our bread because they were having such a bad day.

We went into the water but it was the last straw for us when we spotted slime and also an empty bag of breeze detergent float by. We called our boat man who left us on the island and decided we were better off swimming at the beach in Nipah Bay itself which we did once we got back…
Over all…the boat ride was fun….but the locations visited rather disappointing.

After bumming on the beach in Nipah Bay for about more than an hour, we headed back for a good shower and then we were off again to explore the the local fishing industry.
Ikan Bilis or dried anchovies, dried squid and loads of other dried stuff are very famous “exports” of the island.
They have quite a few locations around the island that allow the public to come up to their pier and see them offloading their catch and also processing their goods.

We saw the ladies there separating the ready anchovies based on their sizes as they are priced differently.
Although the processing environment is not all that hygienic, this took the cake:

The guy was actually using his feet with his slipper on to push the dried anchovies into the shovel kind of thing and then putting it into the plastic bags. This plastic bag full of the dried anchovies is then taken into their sales area to be sold. Gross.

We found some other very interesting things being sold in the local market area…I dono, maybe I’m not so adventuress or lets just blame it on my mother…she didn’t teach me to eat all this kinda stuff…

Pangkor Trip - Part 3

2008-02-28T18:49:00.003+08:00

The first night that we were there, we were very excited to indulge in some good seafood. After consulting on the best places to eat (from a local police man and also the island roti man), we were told that the best place for grilled fish would be along the main road of Nipah Bay, which was walking distance from the hotel we were staying in.

Being a weekday, not many shops were open. We found one shop there which was by the beach and had a good range of super fresh fishes to select from.

We saw this really interesting looking fish, nothing like what we had seen our local markets. It’s called a parrot fish. It was so pretty that we actually felt bad to eat it but the locals there really recommended the fish.

The price of the fish is including “cooking charges” which came up to RM30 per fish. We decided to grill one half of the fish and deep fry the other with some sauce…I swear, it was out of this word. So sweet, so fresh…unbelievable!

In addition to that, we also ordered our favorite kangkong belacan…yummy stuff.

Total bill for the 2 of us including rice…RM37. We were so so full and satisfied…one of the best seafood meals we have ever had and all for that price. Went back to our room and totally knocked out…

Pangkor Trip - Part 2

2008-02-22T13:44:00.006+08:00

After the first of many makan sessions we had on the island, we decided to go check out its attractions aside from the beach.
They have quite a few historical sites that are from the time very very much before the independence however, the state government has done very very little to preserve these attractions and historical sites.
Let’s just say that they are in a sad sad state.

1st stop - The Old Fort.
It is just along one of the main roads.
When I visited this place years ago being a kid, we had to walk thru this jungle like track to get to the fort and it was totally untouched…
Now, there is actually a souvenir and batik shop set up next to it (that I doubt actually operates) and a lot of kampong houses that have come up on the other side…complete with the chicken coops and everything. Took a picture in the same spot I did when I was young…shall scan the old picture (which is in Penang) and put it up along with the current one soon.

Old Fort

How I felt – Disappointed

2nd Stop – Historical Rock.

There is actually a message carved into the stone by the Portuguese if I’m not mistaken but the main attraction there now is:

These inconsiderate people have even vandal the drawing carved on the stone…tsk tsk tsk. After stopping at these two “attractions” we realized there was no point to go much further looking for the historical sites.

How I felt – VERY Disappointed

One more thing, you will see a lot of white elephants on the island.

Abandoned

And Another

And Yet Another...

I promise to write nicer things in my next post…but it was necessary to share all this too!

Confused?

2008-02-19T17:08:00.002+08:00

Jaspal => Bomb
Bomb => Jaspal

I will be refering to Jaspal as Bomb from now...he says it feels so formal to him when I address him as Jaspal on my blog.

Blek!

Pangkor Trip - Part 1

2008-02-19T15:22:00.007+08:00

The only way I can summarize my trip to Pangkor with Bomb was it was a Gastronomical Adventure!

Pangkor is a super laid back place with nice beaches and even more yummy food. The island is rather unpolluted by car fumes with people mostly traveling by motorcycles sans the Taxi Service there that uses Vans. It takes about 30 minutes to go round the whole island and take in the view from various look out points built on the island.

We left KL about 12noon after some minor car trouble and were in Lumut by about 3pm. I have no idea why but the journey getting there seemed endless.
Reaching Lumut, I realized it was very much changed from the last time I was there some 10 years ago.

The town had changed a lot with a new jetty and also a new multistory car park.
We parked in the car park belonging to Hotel Indah. There is a flat rate for parking here in Lumut at RM10 a day. The good thing about parking in Hotel Indah is that it is fenced and they close the gates, giving you a little more sense of security for your vehicle.

First stop was to get our ferry tickets. Ferries generally leave every 30 minutes or so and are punctual. There is no fixed timing for your ticket; you can board the ferry at anytime. Return ticket for 1 person cost RM10 and the journey takes roughly about 30 minutes. The ferries are like those plying the route to Langkawi but look a little more worn out.

Once we got our ticket, we decided to walk around a bit before our ferry. Both being a little fizzled from the drive and naturally hungry, we found ourselves with very little choice of food nearby the jetty. We found this Indian Muslim shop just opposite the jetty and shared an Ice Kacang. Very yummy and filling even for 2. Cost = RM2.50. A must try as a thirst quencher in Lumut. After that we were off to catch our ferry.

View as you are approaching the island.

The ferry actually stops at two different jetties on the island. 1 is the SPK or Sungai Pinang Kecil Jetty where mainly the locals living in the surrounding fishing villages get down. The one that tourist and visitor get down at is the 2nd jetty.

Once on the island, we rented a motorcycle. It usually cost between RM20 – RM25 per day. We rented ours for 3 Days & 2 Nights for RM40. It was a little rickety but it added to the small town feel.

Go buy number k

Very few petrol pumps on the island and mostly being the no brand kind. We pumped RM4 of petrol that was more then needed for the 3 days that we were there. Returned the bike with almost half the tank full.

Our hotel was at a stretch of the beach known as Nipah Bay. This is one of the nicer parts of the island and caters for various levels of budgets. Nice clear water beaches too…

We stayed at this place called Nipah Bay Villa. For a single unit chalet it was RM95 per night. It was cheaper since it was a weekday. The rates range from RM95 – RM120 on weekends depending on occupancy and demand.

Our Chalet Unit

Both Bomb and I prefer to stay in places like this when on holidays to get away from the brick-y feeling that we already have while in KL.

Our room…can’t put up many of the photos of the room …I know, should have taken the pictures before we made a mess…this is all I can share.

After unpacking a little and changing, we headed back out to town to find something to eat. It was about 4+pm then and most of the shops had either closed after lunch or hadn’t opened for dinner yet. We manage to find this little coffee shop opposite the Pangkor Primary School.

We had some Wan Tan Mee Pangkor style and some Assam Laksa. The Wan Tan Mee was actually pretty nice, Laksa – so so only… that plus 1 barli came up to RM8.40. That’s a price you would expect in KL and not Pangkor…but it was nice anyway.

After that we got back on the motorcycle and off we went…next thing we know we were back at the coffee shop again only to realize we had rode around the whole island in less then 30 minutes…hmmm...

Went again on another round and this time stopped in a few historical places…more on that later…

City Gal + Pasar Borong + CNY Part 1

2008-02-13T11:31:00.006+08:00

Over the CNY holidays, my family came to be with us in KL. After having a late night on CNY eve with our good friends DP and Ruby we decided that we should go to the pasar borong in Selayang to get some stuff to cook the next day for lunch (I think the decision was made based on the lack of sleep and too much coffee).

So at 4Am, Bomb and I left our house and went to the pasar borong. So excited at that point that we were doing something out of the ordinary...The first thing that greeted us at the pasar borong was the stench the moment we opened the car doors...Then we faced the welcoming committee...some roaches and rats...we must have been high on excitement because it didn't turn us off!

Got a couple of stuff at the dry market...all fine and dandy...then it came to the horror of the wet market!It was so gross...the floor was all flooded and my sandals were soaked in what I imagine to be fish water in a matter of minutes...so gross.They refused to clean the fish / seafood for us and if was a WYSIWYG kinda situation...I was not about to take back anything that required me to cut and remove it's head and insides...yes yes...I’m a City Girl.

We left at 5am and were home and showered by 5.30 and off to la la land...woke up the next morning and cleaned our loot from the market...

Conclusion: This is one adventure I don't want to repeat. I shall stick to buying stuff from Giant and Tesco...so what if people think I'm spoilt, at least my shoes don't stink of fish gooe...

Like the crazy adventurers we are...here are some photo's of me in the market...the people there thought that we were more crazy and less the adventurers when we stopped for the photo's.

Pictures taken with Bomb's N73...not very clear. He must have been sleepy...hehehe...

Focus

2008-02-13T10:45:00.004+08:00

Sitting back and thinking, I realised that in the last few years, I have not really had a focus of what I would like to do or achieve...
Most of last year was focused around the wedding. With that done, I suddenly felt that there is very little happening with me that is actually exciting me on a day to day basis.
I have suddenly fallen into this housewife (nagging included in package) routine of work -> home -> cook -> clean & repeat.

My current job is not really exciting me and I can't move to another job in this year till everything is stable on the home front. Since traveling actually excites me, I have decided that I want to travel as much as possible this year and next year. It doesn't have to be trips to the North Pole but as long as it's some kinda traveling, I'm game for it.

Hence I decided to make a list of the places I would like to go to this year and at the end of the year, recap and see how many places I actually managed to visit.

Pangkor Island (Going Tomorrow...Yippie!)
Redang Islang
Bali
Bangkok
Vietnam
Climb Kinabalu
India (Early next year maybe?)

Besides that I also want to get my PADI certification this year so that I can explore my passion for diving.

p/s: after i finished my list...only then did i realise that i'm such a beach bum...

Super Cool

2008-01-31T16:01:00.000+08:00

Check it out...One of the models from Kenneth Cole's new ad campaign.

This world-wide ad campaign is for Kenneth Cole’s 20th anniversary, and the focus is on the fact that “we all walk in different shoes.” Kenneth Cole has a long history of supporting socially conscious initiatives, including the AWARENESS campaign focused on AIDS and homelessness. Along with Sonny [Singh], the other “models” were selected for the adversity that they face in their day to day life (e.g., two Muslim sisters who escaped Taliban Afghanistan, a blond model who is HIV-positive, etc.).

They will be launching a website in the coming weeks that features a video interview with each model, along with their story. This will obviously bring tremendous visibility to our community and hopefully move us closer to breaking the stereotypes we work so hard every day to counter. The attached pictures are of a 20-foot board outside the Kenneth Cole store in Rockefeller Center (49th and 5th). Similar posters and billboards should be popping up in the coming months.

Very cool...read more HERE

Blue

2008-01-29T11:26:00.001+08:00

Its coming up to almost 2 weeks since Bomb left for his off shore trip and 1 week since I have had any contact with him. In these two weeks, I celebrated the 1st month of being married both legally and traditionally and a few other firsts.

It’s sometimes incredibly hard to go thru days alone but I’m glad to say that I have a wonderful support system in my family and also some very good friends.

Mr & Mrs A who live in the lorong next to mine are constantly calling and popping by (sometimes unannounced!) to make sure all’s okie with me.

I too have been keeping myself busy at work and at home, but it’s just not the same.
I was telling my mum this morning that I couldn’t help but to feel a little depressed and she offered to make a trip down. Since she was already coming during the Chinese New Year holidays, I told her I will keep myself sane till then. I hope work picks up a little more soon so that I will be more occupied, also I shall start scouting around for a good place to go for some yoga / pilates.

Freaky Friday

2008-01-29T11:00:00.000+08:00

Last Friday Evening, we were all jolted by the news. The bus my aunty and cousin Dev were traveling in to visit us in KL met in an accident at KM 382 on the North South Highway.
Having previously seen the extend of injuries and damages from bus accidents on the highways, we were dumb stuck and all numbly rushed to the Slim River Hospital to get to them as soon as possible. Although I was first to leave KL for Slim River, I got stuck in the massive crawl towards Behrang and sat in the jam for almost 2 hours. With my heart aching wanting to get to my family as soon as possible, sitting in the jam saw me go thru an array of feelings – sad, angry.

I finally got to the hospital at 9pm (I left KL at 6pm) and rushed to my family. Reporters were everywhere trying to get their scoop.
When I finally found my aunty and Dev, I was relieved to see that although they were hurt, their injuries were a lot lesser than I imagined when I saw the condition of the bus.

They were sitting here (see red box):

After a whole load of X-Rays and checks, my Aunty was to be warded that night from the multiple cuts and bruises that she suffered plus an extremely hard knock to the head. Dev broke his elbow.

We are so thankful to GOD that he protected them. However, there were many others who were not so lucky and suffered serious injuries and 3 people who died in this accident.
The driver who had 13 summons was said to be speeding in the rain and SMSing at the same time (eye witness account from a friend of Dev’s that was sitting right behind the driver). The driver ONLY broke his leg.

My aunty and Dev have since gone back to Penang to nurse their injuries.

My heart goes out to those families who grieve the lost of loved ones.

Read the article from the NST Online.

Wedding Part 5 - The Day

2008-01-22T12:00:00.000+08:00

Today is exactly one month since the wedding...I have to say the month has passed quite slowly giving the both of us time to enjoy it.

I thought it would be good if I completed the last post on the wedding today...

Morning of the Anand Karaj started with rush + excitement. I was the last one to wake up that morning so that the bathroom would be empty and ready for me but little to my surprise, my grandma decides that she needed to take her bath the minute she saw me picking up my towel...so I threw an early morning bride hissy fit...hehehe...it's not always that I will be able to do that!

Then I was off to get all made up by my make up lady...

Work in Progress

While I was getting ready, the ladies were helping with getting my dupatta all ready for me so that my brother and mum could ceremoniously put it on my head.

After that we took some "fake" photo's of me so call leaving the house to the gurdwara so that my brother could head there to receive the groom's party. Mum then with the help of another aunt, secured my dupatta on my head so that it would last the whole day of events & numerous blessing sessions...

Some random pictures from when I was getting ready...

My angel...came to sneak a peek while I was getting ready. Looking so cute in his kurta.

Wedding Shoes

My Handbag

While I was getting ready at home, the groom's party arrived at the gurdwara. There we had the Milni (the receiving of the groom and this entourage) and breakfast for all of them.

Road block before breakfast

Then I was off to the gurdwara...was received by my family there who then walked in with me.

Walking into the Darbar

Once I was seated, the ceremony started. We both came forward and sat in front.

After the reciting of some prayers, my brother and my uncle came forward and put the pela. At that exact moment, all my flood gates opened...although I was so macho and said I wouldn't cry, I just couldn't help it...Thank God for water proof makeup! I later learned that my crying made half the congregation cry.

Holding on tight

After that, a few more prayers were recited and then we started on the laava around the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

The shabad's of the laava were sang by a very dear family friend who is also a very well known singer among listeners of Kirtan or Hindi & Punjabi Songs. From the time I was a little girl I always wanted her to sing my wedding laava shabad's.

Was simply amazing...

Hardev Kaur + her whole family - there to give us support

With the completion of the 4 laava we were officially husband and wife!

Some random pictures in the Darbar during the wedding.

Once the gurdwara programme was over, Jaspal and I left to the photo studio for our photography session (will post those pictures later) and the rest of the guest went to the luncheon venue.

I have to say the many discussions I had with my decorator really paid off. He really made my vision of what I wanted come together.

Some pictures of the lunch venue / deco

Jaspal and I arriving for the luncheon

I was told the food was good, but I personally had very little to eat...too busy...

Jaspal and I giving a short speech

At about 3pm, we headed back to the house for the Departure of the Doli (the sending off of the bride)

Received by Jesmeet

Then the we were given gifts and also feed with loads of sweets.

Once everyone had their turn, we exchanged our rings.

In the rush of everything, we manage to take 1 not so nice (all looking so worn out) family photo...the next time all of us are together, we need to go get a decent one taken...

With all the ceremonies done, it was time to go...lots of hugs exchanged, a few tears and we were off to Ipoh...

On A Solemn Note

2008-01-14T14:04:00.000+08:00

The uncle who video-taped my whole wedding passed away suddenly last night. He was a very nice guy and was very patient with my silly bridal antics...
I dono what else to say besides how short and unpredictable life can be.
Teaches you how to appreciate life and the people around you.

Wedding Part 4 - Chuda

2008-01-11T17:50:00.000+08:00

On Friday Nite (21st Dec) we had the Chuda ceremony at home. This is the ceremony where the bride's maternal uncles and brothers put on these wedding bangles for the bride.

Traditionally, the bride is supposed to wear the bangles for 45 days...I however took them off about a week + into the 45 days. Was developing a wicked rash under the bangles (I'm allergic to anything that has nickel) and I was starting work in my new office on the 2Nd of January. I however would have luved to have been able to wear them the full 45 days.

Some random pictures from the ceremony.

My Uncle having a go

My Darling Brother - My Go-To Guy...

My Super Hero Mum & I

Jesmeet & I - She was my PA thru out the wedding...making sure to keep me on schedule and making sure all the To-Do's were done. Wouldn't have been able to manage without her.

Sabrin & I - We have gotten extremely close these last few years and she has been my pillar of strength thru out the planning and Execution of the wedding (+my partner in crime). She always looked out for my welfare against bossy relatives! :)

My Main Man & I - Sabrin's Son / My God Son - Provided all the entertainment needed!

A Family Shot - One of the few we manage to take and I look so ugly; why? Cause the bride is not supposed to wear any make up prior to the wedding so that she will look fantastic on the wedding day...Doesn't that give all the credit to the makeup?

Another Family Shot...

Wedding Part 3.1 - Gurdwara

2008-01-11T16:10:00.000+08:00

While I was happily at home getting my Mehndi done, a lot of people got together to help out in the gurdwara to ensure that the items for the Vegetarian Meal (to be served after the wedding in the gurdwara) were ready...cleaned, chopped...

Meanwhile, while one team worked on the food another worked on flowers that arrived from Cameron Highlands the night before...pwetty pwetty stuff...

Wedding Part 3 - Mehndi

2008-01-09T17:30:00.000+08:00

Friday morning started in a rather huru hara condition...we were all so tired from the Sangeet the night before + we all a little Malibu each. Who would have thought, that all of us we that tired that 1 pack of Malibu would have knocked us out like that...

Anyway, my Mehndi lady was supposed to be at my place by 9 am and we all proudly woke up at 8.40am...

I took a super quick bath and while still in the bathroom, Jesmeet knocked the door to let me know that the Mehndi lady was already there...hmm...mandi kerbau after that...

Anyway, we started off and I managed to con my cousin Sabrin to feed me my breakfast...ahhh...the perks of being the bride!

Some details on what, who, why Mehndi

A look at the job in progress...

After about almost 2 hours I had not only a numb back, but even my butt was asleep...

Me Stretching

Once again, getting fed...yummy. Lunch never tasted better than when it's fed with a whole load of luv.

After almost 6.5 hours + this is the finished result...unbelievable. She (my Menhdi Lady) is so freaking patient...I was very pleased with the results.

I kept it on till about 8pm and scraped it off just before we were going to start with the Chuda ceremony...Didn't wash my hands till the next morning and kept applying minyak angin to make sure that my skin remained warm and the colour kept getting darker. The plan worked...cause the colour was super dark and really pretty...

Meanwhile, that same afternoon, my mum and aunt packed up a basket containing 101 ladoo's that we were to present to the groom's party the next day when they came to the house after the luncheon.

Pretty...

Wedding Part 2 - Sangeet

2008-01-09T10:09:00.000+08:00

After the Maiya, it started raining. It rained and rained and rained. We had to take off all the table cloths + the chair covers cause they were all getting wet from the water on the road.

I retreated to my bed room, said a silent prayer and decided instead of getting all stressed up, I should try to get some shut eye.

I woke up and got ready for the Sangeet but it was still raining...seems like my prayers were too silent...it was then time for some old fashion "jadu" or hokus pokus...

The old ladies told me to take 3 dried chillies, put them on a stick and put it at the entrance of the house...

At that point, I was ready to do about anything!

Me & My Magical Chillies

About 7ish, the ladies started arriving. The first sang 7 folk songs related to the marriage of a girl and then they started with the more happening giddha songs.

Once they got all warmed up, some of the ladies couldn't help but start dancing!
FYI - no Punjabi festivity is complete without dancing...even if it was 3 in the morning!

Chowing Down

As dinner was served, the Jaago dance was performed. The Jaago [pictured below] is usually carried by the Maternal Uncle's Wife. The top of the Jaago is lighted with candles.

While the Jaago is carried, two other ladies (in this case, my paternal aunt and my sister in law, Jesmeet) acted out the role of the itchy-fied old man and his young bride.

They then danced with the person carrying the Jaago and mainly targeted men who will give them money in return of the old man showing his bride off...was loads of fun and they did make quite a handsome collection!

Then like every Sangeet function, the latest songs were played and everyone danced their hearts out...even the "demure" bride!

Wedding Part 1 - Maiya

2008-01-04T14:46:00.000+08:00

So here is the 1st post on my wedding. There are gonna be many many post on the wedding cause a Sikh wedding has quite a few "processes" - some more cultural than religious but it's all this that makes the wedding a celebration.

Usually the festivities of a Sikh wedding starts off the the Maiya @ Oil Ceremony.

A Kolam or Rangoli is usually drawn where the bride or groom is going to sit. Although the drawing of the Rangoli is traditionally South India, it's elements are absorbed in as a part of the Oil Ceremony.
For my wedding, we decided on a more "retro" theme for the Rangoli.

Ladies at work creating the Rangoli

The finished product - Pretty!

Then the bride made her grand entrance...looking all shy and demure... (LOL)

Once I was seated, my mum tied a red string on my hand. The same kind of string was then tied on all the married ladies that were present for the oil ceremony.

Then the torture began. All the ladies took turns to lather me with oil, saffron, yogurt and then feed me with sweets...it started out okie but look at my condition as it progressed. I was successfully oiled by some 30 ladies...

The cloth held over my head was hand-made by my granny and has been used in all the wedding in the family...

Once I was oiled by all of them, I was then rubbed down...

My Condition once it was over

Then my maternal uncle had to help me up and send me off for a good bath.

While I was taking my bath, my mum had to step over the stool that I was sitting on with the cloth that was held over my head. I think she had to do it some 7 times...what is the rational of doing it..I have no idea.

Once she was done, some of the mixture that was rubbed over me was put where I was sitting and my mum had to then mix it up with her hand and put a stamp on the entrance of the house.

Top Stamp - From my Brother's Wedding Last Year.

After I took my bath and had dressed up, my uncle once again came to receive me and feed me some sweet rice.

Then I took turns to feed the unmarried girls and then they feed me and then the married ladies feed me...We were supposed to finish all the rice in the plate...but I couldn't eat anymore...

Later that night, we had the Sangeet...will post about it soon.

Rusty

2008-01-03T16:27:00.000+08:00

I realised that as long as I have had this blog, I have never put up any pictures of my dog Rusty.
During the wedding, my "forced" photographer took some really nice shots of her. Tot I'd start off the wedding posts with photo's of Rusty during the wedding.

Wedding On You Tube

2008-01-02T15:19:00.000+08:00

One of my workmates from my Penang Office uploaded this short clip of the wedding on to You Tube.

Take a look :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af6E1fcatYc

1st Post - 2008

2008-01-02T11:53:00.000+08:00

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks…with the wedding and also moving to KL permanently. I wanted to put up a post before the year ended but didn’t manage to with all the things going on.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful…I will put up the pictures once I have gone thru them…The moving on the other hand was rather painful. I never imagined the full impact that it would have on me until we actually left to KL last Thursday cause at that very moment, everything changed…it didn’t feel that way on my wedding day cause I had it at the back of my mind that I would be back home with my mum in just two days but moving to KL means that I will now only have weekends / extended weekends with her…the emotions can still open the flood gates every now and then. I cannot begin to imagine how she feels...

Besides all that, today is my 1st day back at work after being off for half a month in Dec. First day back at work + first day in my new office (Transferred from Branch in Penang -> HQ in Subang). It’s all a big blur at the moment…just got my cube but have no idea what to do…hell I’m not even sure where the toilet is…no one has actually given me a tour yet. I think I have to start looking on my own soon.

Single Digits

2007-12-14T11:56:00.000+08:00

So we are down to single digits…
How am I feeling?
It’s a mix of cold feet, sweaty palms, butterflies in my stomach, sleepless nights + a constant high…I have had a silly smile on my face for days now.

Office mates gave me a farewell lunch yesterday, we went to Manhattan Fish Market…wasn’t a big crowd but it was wonderful cause all the people that mattered were there. Had a great time, will post pictures later on.

Meanwhile, everything is in place to welcome everybody home today and tomorrow…should get more fun and busy once everyone comes home.
Lots to be done and it feels great to be able to just pass everything to some one else and just kick back and relax or at least I can hope to!

Will try to post more before the wedding…

Mum + Her Medal

2007-11-30T12:32:00.001+08:00

Two weeks back, we went to the palace. Mum was being awarded a medal by the King.
So on the 19th in the morning, I went and dropped mum off at the palace for a trial run of the award ceremony…
She looked so pretty

When I picked her up that afternoon she shared with me a whole load of do’s and don’ts…some that I found extremely silly…

We were supposed to treat this booklet with utter most respect cause it had the pictures of the king and queen...people did for a while, later I saw them carrying them in their armpits.

On the 20th Morning, we headed back to the palace for the actual event. We were there at 8.30am and the king made his entrance at 10am.
Ceremony took about an hour and I have to admit, I was so extremely sleepy, I was yawning thru most of it.

After the ceremony, the new Datuk’s and Tan Sri’s + their made up wife’s went and had brunch with the king while we normal people were treated to an outdoor brunch.

Photo’s from the brunch:

Doesn’t matter if you are in the palace, Malaysians still can’t line up in an orderly manner.

For the a little bit more important normal people

What do you eat when you visit the palace…apparently the normal Malaysian grub.

So much of respect we have for our flag. We stick it on a stick with a slice of cucumber, onion and nasi impit...

So Super OILY!

Everything there from the spoons to the sugar sachets had the royal emblem…
You may be in the palace, but the kitchen behind the Balai Rongsri looked like a typical dirty restaurant…only manage to take 1 picture, I fear that I be arrested under the ISA.

Some other views around the palace grounds

Pictures Of The New House

2007-11-27T10:27:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures of the new house. Lots to be done yet....

The Moving Crew...taking a break for some tea and kick ass pisang goreng

Upset With Customer

2007-11-27T10:13:00.000+08:00

Yesterday for the first time after working here for almost 3 years, I truly got upset with a customer.

This is the same customer that I spent numerous weekends working for and sometimes till 1 / 2 am to make sure that their system was up and all was okie. All this for less than a Thank You, but I took it as self satisfaction if the job was well done.

They are currently upgrading and migrating their infrastructure and are having some problems…while in a long meeting with them yesterday, he actually had the nerve to suggest that it could be because I was servicing them and not someone more senior.

He had the nerve to say that the problem is probably due to the fact that I may have done it incompletely and that could be the cause of the problem now.
I got pretty upset and told him that the setup is exactly the same and that no changes were done.

This final move was done when I was in KL and wasn't involved in the project but the bloke also wasn't here at that time and he didn't know so he assume's I did it.
I really felt disappointed mainly because the customer is judging the job on who they think did it (meaning if I did it = probably reason for problem) and not the quality of the job.

Then I tell myself…another 14 days and I won’t have to deal with this customer anymore…and within these 14 days if he needs my help, he can think again if I’m going to do it for him willingly.