Surprise

I've been busy travelling the whole of last week. When I came back, I found this in my garden. Surprise surprise!

I feel accomplished...

I drove to work today... and I did not get lost! After 1.5 years of working here, today is the first time I drove here... on my own... and without getting lost :)

It's amazing...

Daily Grind

CNY is coming to a close and the time off was bittersweet this time. Lots of great stuff went on including meeting two wonderful twin cousins for the first time! Food and family also made sure the days were warm, satisfying and celebratory.

This year also saw some big changes on my personal front. Adjusting to it on my own time but looking forward to the 'new' year with eyes wide open.

Squeak Squeak!

The Year of the Earth Rat is upon us and I'll be back in Melaka celebrating the season with family. Here's wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!

Back from Bangkok

Bangkok was a blast! This is my 3rd trip there, 2nd time alone, and by far, the best time I've had there. I arrived at noon and checked into my hotel. Had to settle for 2 single beds as those are the only rooms left. Was a little freaky at night having an empty bed beside me. Hotel was good though and I highly recommend it. Economical, great location, wonderful breakfast and amazing service :)



I was famished by the time I arrived. First stop was Siam Paragon and I had some rice and this Thai popiah. Very sticky, funky taste but I'll stick to my favourite nyonya popiah.



I took this photo at Paragon Departmental Store. I love dinosaurs... even pink ones.



I spent the entire first day shopping. Went from Paragon to Siam Centre then to Siam Discovery and then to MBK. When I was utterly exhausted, went back to hotel to rest and shower.



Dinner that night was a no-brainer. I had to have tomyam. Went to Suan Lum night market at Lumpini which is close to where I was staying in Silom. Food was amazing and cheap. I had Tom Yam Gai (chicken), egg and vegetables with a mango shake. Delicious.



After that it's another round of shopping. Suan Lum night market is very similarly laid out to Chatuchak though on a smaller more manageable scale. And because it's at night, it's not so warm. Very pleasant shopping experience. And with that, Day 1 comes to a close!



Day 2 began with breakfast at the hotel cafe called Foodie. It's open 24 hours and the food is good. Selection isn't vast but quality of the food is really taken care of. Very tasty, wholesome, and filling.



Day 2 began with a walk around Silom and a visit to Central Silom, a mall. Here's Ronald in the traditional Thai greeting pose.



After a walk-a-bout, I took the train to Chatuchak and met a friend who drove me to Ayuthaya. It's an amazing place with so many temples. I really liked the reclining Buddha (one of many).



More beautiful shots of one of the temples. This place reminded me of Angkor Wat though not quite in that scale. Awe-inspiring though I was a little frightened of being trapped while the whole place crumbled. Could see many of the brick foundations collapsing under the weight of the huge structure.



There was also a memorial to one of the deceased kings. Apparently, the king's favourite pet was the rooster so there was a whole herd of them lining up. Very cute. Wished he liked rabbits instead.



The last temple I went to had some interesting traditions. First of all, you buy some live fish. Its mostly river fishes such as the climbing perch, snakehead, 3-spot gourami, rasboras and eels. Each fish carries a symbolic meaning so you can choose a specific type or get one of every kind. I got one of every kind to be safe :)



So what you do is you bring your fish to a river beside the temple. You are given a prayer to recite and then you release the fish into the river. It's quite an experience though I really wonder what this does to the natural eco-system.



The temple also had a good gardener with good choice in animals for the shrubbery.



Lunch was at a nearby stall. I had noodles and then had this fishcake dish which was delicious! Cheap too...



That night, I went again to my favourite mall... MBK! And thus ends Day 2!



Day 3 is a little shorter as I need to get to the airport by mid-day. Spent a leisurely morning browsing through the street vendors and actually ended up at MBK again.



It was a fun, leisurely holiday... looking forward to visiting Bangkok again!

My name is Dan and I'm a...

...workaholic?

I would never imagine myself being one but nowadays, work is what my entire life revolves around. Or seems so anyways.

My work calendar is filled up all the way through to January 2009. At least 14 weekends have been fully booked with traveling and I'm also working on Dec 31 2008. I'll be celebrating New Year's in Ipoh probably in Impiana Casuarina enjoying the view of the old racehorse and eating chicken biscuits.

I'm also working a few days before CNY this year which is a first. I'm usually off for like 2 weeks during CNY but there's stuff I need to attend. It's a crazy time indeed. Even my Feng Shui predictions says that work will be a big part of 2008 (though it also did say I will be earning more moolah, woohoo!).

On top of my fulltime commitments, I also teach parttime like most of you know. This time, I'm doing 10 hours a week, which doesn't sound all too bad except that the 10 hours are all in one day. Talking and fielding questions to an endless stream of students for 10 hours with barely any breaks in between has definitely been hell'ish so far. I hope I can survive till the end of the semester without breaking some necks along the way.

Right now, I'm just looking forward to my short getaway to Bangkok. Some good food and rest will be amazing :)

Days go by

January is like any other so far, except of course that it has quite a number of holidays in between. I've yet to work a full week and am definitely not complaining although all the eating and less gymming can't be good. And that insane but wonderful pigging out session recently with Meng and company could not have helped! Come next week, my waistline will take more beatings when I stuff myself with authentic Thai fare when I visit Bangkok for a few days.

New years are over-rated but you can't fault the holidays and the food.

Welcome 2008

It's the new year... I spent new year's eve watching the X-Men marathon and fell asleep at 1:00am on January 1 2008. In other words, it was like any other new year before :)

Like many others, I do get quite reflective during this time. 2007 has been quite a dramatic year. It was an emotional roller coaster, I was challenged with a new career, I've never had such a tight schedule, and financially I made some very major commitments. 2007 has been one heck of a ride with decisions made in that time having long-term repercussions.

In 2008, I expect to have an even busier schedule with work eating up 14 hours daily (commute inclusive) for 6 days a week. Sundays, my one and only rest day will be taken up with chores and family duties and this will likely be my life for a good few years. So friends, let me apologise in advance for retreating even further into my anti-social shell!

2008 will be a challenge on all fronts. There are lots to gain and also much has been lost but life goes on irregardless. Have a good year everyone and all the best!

Christmas in the middle of nowhere...

Christmas this year was somewhat anti-climactic. Although I don't really celebrate Christmas, I usually do find myself in somewhat festive company or at least at home watching a Christmas movie. This year, I spent Christmas working in Beaufort, a small town in Sabah that really could use a few good eating places.



I was there to do some visitor research on one of our travelling exhibitions. Work was alright although I tell you, time passed so slowly my team and I were checking our watches every 15 minutes or so. The pace there is so leisurely that we even went to bed by 9pm out of sheer boredom.



There was a little drama though when a stray cat who was mewing from the ceiling jumped and landed on an airconditioning unit and was stuck. Valient staff members jumped to the rescue albeit dangerously. I was standing a little distance away as I did not want a frenzied feline jumping on my head.



Being a small town, the best accomodation we could find was the Borneo Golf Resort which is about a 30 minute drive away, leisurely of course considering the winding single lane roads. The only lodging options in town is some guesthouses and I definitely do not want to spend 4 days in a seedy joint. Then again, the resort isn't any better. Rooms are decent but the pool is filthy, breakfast is bad and there are insects everywhere! Can't beat the view of the golf course though.



The resort also seemed to target Koreans so breakfast is a little funky and Korean channels is a aplenty. Only thing worth watching was CNN thus the early nights.

It was an interesting Christmas but I've never been so happy to be back.

Tis the season...

It's hard to avoid Christmas especially when plastic trees of all shapes and sizes with all kinds of adornments start sprouting up indoors. I particularly like the tree at Megamall. Funky use of traditional looking decor with some really interesting candy like thingy's.



I had some trees of my own at home too. Couldn't bring myself to pay good money for green plastic and too lazy to make one so compromised with a somewhat abstract tree that took 5 minutes to make. Seemed festive enough during my little Christmas/HariRaya/TangYuen makan.



I also did some 'cooking' and managed to pull off a decent garden salad, potato salad and tang yuen for the first time!



But when it comes to food, nothing beats the super duper dessert I had at Clara's wedding dinner. Gosh, it was amazing... almond biscuit, vanilla ice cream and mango soup with a dash of galangal. So so so good.



Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone. To old and new friends, lost and found friends, and those never forgotten... good tidings to one and all.

Working weekend

I've been really busy and terribly exhausted of late. Lots of travelling and there's stuff that needs dealing with. I don't like year-ends...

Anyways, spent the last weekend in Penang and devoted quite a few hours to stacking chairs...



I also met the PowerPuff Girls. :)



Looking forward to a week or so of my regular routine before I'm off to Beaufort in Sabah. Groan...

What do you see?

Can't remember whether I've posted this but was going through a presentation and this photo I took popped up. Do you see what I see? Brr...

Gloomy

Having a bout of down-and-outness... waiting for the sun to come out and shine again...

Home sweet home...

There was some changes in my work plans so when I found my weekend was available, I took the opportunity to go back to Melaka especially when it was also my Dad's birthday. It's been ages since I've been back and it's always good to soak in all the good things about being home :)

This time round I managed to get a taste of all my favourite Malaccan goodies! It's quite rare for me to get so much eaten in a trip!

I also managed to visit the Eye on Malacca. Here's a shot of it.



There's also a trampoline thingy and a Pirate Ship.



This area used to be the old inter-state bus station. This old bridge links the station across the Melaka River to the old town centre. You can see the old Cathay cinema building.



You can also see the back of the old shopfronts.



It's good to be home.

Bernie Wifi!

Tis the season for work trips again and my first stop was Kota Kinabalu. I was hoping to stay at the Le Meridien where I was rooming in previous trips but due to some logistical issues, ended up at the Beverly Hotel where I met Bernie WiFi, the hotel's WiFi mascot who apparently everyone wants a piece of. His tie is on fire though but since he doesn't seem to care, he must have some super powers.

Speaking of WiFi though, my colleague who always proclaim her IT background pronounces WiFi as Wee-Fee... interesting...

Langkawi

I spent 4 wonderful days in Langkawi with my family and it was wonderful. The pictures here are from Tanjung Rhu, one of the nicer beaches on the main island. I'm not quite a fan of beaches myself but got to admit, Rhu is breathtaking.



I also had dinner at the infamous Loaf. It's a cafe/bakery co-owned by our former PM and there was certainly a good number of tourists going in just to take pictures. The bread is good though and we also had lunch.


Breaded Chicken Burger - RM 18


Club Sandwich - RM15



Seafood Fettucini - RM30


Chicken Curry - RM25

We also stopped by the hot springs for a good feet soaking. This is the Telaga Air Hangat which is surprisingly free. Pails all provided for you to get the water from the well which is fairly hot.



We also dropped by the Underwater World to check out the penguins. It's too bad that the marine tank was poisoned but everything else was alright. The aquarium had a recent upgrade so it's much better than I remembered though at RM28 per person, it's way overpriced especially when you compare it to Aquaria.



One of the highlights for me was the Cable Car ride. It's wonderfully scenic and the top platform high on the Machincang range is cool with awe-inspring views. You can also see the suspended bridge that you can walk down to.


Spotted this strange mushroom while semi-trekking down to the suspension bridge.



A view from the top station. Breathtaking.



Will I visit Langkawi again? Am actually going in November for work :) It's a wonderful place to visit and chill out but go during off-peak seasons otherwise it can be a chore pushing your way through crowds.

Vacation Time!

The past week has been so relaxing that I'm actually all set and ready to rock it at work but guess what, I'm off for vacation! Will be off tomorrow for a family holiday and I'll be back to the office next Thursday.

Bliss...

Man in Space

It's not the Sputnik but we have a Malaysian in space! Glad to have witnessed the moment with the kids.

An experience LOST on me...

Yesterday, in the spirit of lifelong learning I paid a visit to ‘The Lost City’, a much hyped exhibition that seemed to suggest an exciting edutainment visit. You can visit http://www.thelostcity.com.my/ for background information on the exhibition.

Ticket costs RM20 for adults on weekdays and RM25 on weekends. If you visit Summit USJ, you will find promotions on the exhibition everywhere and fairly nicely done. Located on the 4^th floor, it occupies the space formerly used by Prime College which incidentally was my previous office area way back then.

The experience to The Lost City is structured as follows:

1. Purchase tickets then proceed to queue. Here, groups are formed and a guide is assigned to a group.
2. Depending on your time, you either proceed directly to a 10-minute screening of an introductory movie or if the movie is being screened midway, you can browse around a museum styled gallery first.
3. The movie introduces you to the lost cities of human civilisation such as the Mayans, the Egyptians, the city of Petra, El Dorado, and a temple in Angkor. As the guide, ‘…you are about to watch how the lost cities of the world have been found by people’. The movie is fairly decent though it is mostly an assemblage of stock photos with an excited but monotonous narration throughout. I think it is designed to build anticipation but because they used the college auditorium which is a huge 400 seater hall, the space overwhelms the movie which is screened via a regular projector.
4. The gallery has a small collection of artefacts from the cities mentioned though there was quite a bit of artefacts on the Terracotta warriors and other Chinese artefacts. There are also 2 multimedia terminals or rather two computers with Flash games. Both games are Mayan influenced, one a simple board game and the other an insanely difficult math game that I could not complete without a calculator. You will likely take 10 minutes on average to complete the gallery. It is however guided and depending on the guide you were assigned, the experience can be favourable or challenging. I changed guides halfway as I jumped groups so I was able to see the difference.
5. After this introduction, you are then brought to the Lost City maze which is very much like a haunted house. The maze begins with a 3D walkway where you have to put on 3D glasses and observe 3D images flanking the walls and floor. The images are mostly of mythical creatures and fantasy scenes which is strange as these have no connection whatsoever to Lost Cities of human civilisation.
6. Then, after being jumped on by a staff member in black, you proceed to a narrow corridor with a bridge, similar to the revolving tunnel exhibit we have in Playsmart Langkawi. Once you enter, the entryway is closed. We walked to the exitway, found it shut and waited for 2 minutes before the bridge started to violently shake. It was juddering and shaking vertically and the motors were incredibly loud. It was not a pleasant nor shocking experience. After a few minutes of this, the exitway opened where someone will collect your 3D glasses.
7. We then enter a jungle like area where there is an assembled dinosaur skeleton. There is ambient music and when you proceed forward, the dinosaur skeleton’s head will abruptly roar and turn its head towards you.
8. After this, you will find yourself in what appears to be a Mayan ruins. There is a water feature with a suspension bridge of rope and planks. There appears to be some timing issues here. When I entered, I immediately explored to the left as there seemed to be a platform but I found another staff member in black crouching behind a pillar and shocked him (or her) instead. Then a Mayan head bust on the wall started speaking (metaphorically, as you can see the speakers behind) and said ‘Stop!’. So we stopped but then the following words suggested that you should be on the bridge by now so I walked to the middle of the bridge and listen to the narrative warning of death beyond this point. I waited until the mask said to ‘Leave this place now’.
9. The next area was dark and there was a glass panel with some rocks behind it. Not exactly sure what this place is for but once again, another staff member in black was waiting to spook guests though this time she was fairly obvious. This must be the ‘death’ that was threatened earlier.
10. After this point, we reached a room where there is an array of treasures and a whole bunch of disco lights and strobes started to swirl with loud music in the background. This area seemed pointless unless you want to go ahead and start dancing.
11. Leaving here, we were greeted by a security guard and shortly after a staff member who asked for our names, IC and phone numbers in the guise of entering it into a lucky draw. She also asked for feedback but when I said ‘overpriced’, she stopped asking me but asked my friends instead.

Overall, a disappointing experience that was hardly educational. Too much emphasis was placed on the design of each stop point in the maze and little thought to how the visit is experienced collectively. With RM20, anyone will be better off visiting Petrosains or add a few more RM to go to Aquaria.

Another year...

I'm 28. I think it's a nice number though. Not too young to be dismissed but not too old to be 'mature'. Then again, age is just a number. You're only as old as you think! :)



To celebrate the day, I had a small dinner/mooncake thingy at home. It was a pleasant affair and always good to be around friends.

So here's to a new year of adventure. I wonder what life have in store for me in the future.