Bali

Last week was eventful for me. Worked for a day and went back to Pg for a night and then off to Bali for 3 nights.

Bali is known as the "island of the thousand temple". I would like to called it
"island of a million temple" instead. This island, 5 times bigger than Singapore has more temples than houses.
According to the locals each house has their own temple for dead.
With population of over 3 millions with more than 90% of them are balinese hindus.


Mount Agung. A priceless view taken from the plane. This is Bali's highest mountain at
10,308 feet and also the most sacred mountain. This mama last erupted in 1963 and as you can see her large and very deep crater, that she is very much an active volcano !


Day 1. Attended the Barong dance. Very well known dance about the fight between good and evil. Do you know that somebody can die or get seriously injured in a Barong dance?
The masks of Barong and Rangda are considered sacred items, and before they are brought out, a priest must be present to offer blessings by sprinkling them with holy water taken from Mount Agung, and offerrings must be presented.
No one got pocessed during the play that day. phew.



This is Tanah Lot. Another sacred temple in Bali. Means Land on the sea in Bali. When the tide is low, people can walk to the temple. It looks like a floating one when the tide is high.
Noticed many caves below the temple and it is said that the sea snakes that inhibit the caves guard the temple from evil.

Wash your face with the holy spring water which runs through the temple cave underneath and then you will receive some rice grains on your forehead and a jasmine tucked in your hair.


Panoramic view of Lake Batur. This is Bali's largest lake, it's surrounded by the high walls of the crater rim. There was a massive eruption thousands of years ago and this lake was formed.
The atmostphere is cool up here.

This is Mount Batur, another active volcano. Adjacent to Lake Batur. Last erupted in 1917 and claimed hundreds of life !

Yes, yes...we already knew.....

Me and Mt Batur.

Our welcome drink. Halved coconut. Very sweet and refreshing after a heaty day.

Beautiful setting of Jimbaran Beach. It's dinner-on-the-beach and musicans playing soothing musics at night time.
Let me rephrase, musicians playing 'chilling' music at times....when these people tried to sing in mandarin to cater to their chinese diners. It gives me the 'chills'.
Terrible pitching problem and pronounciation also out, suddenly my crab tasted bad after hearing them sing.
I give then 7/10 for the effort.


Sunset coming up at Jimbaran Beach. When the shades turn from yellow to orange to red.


Sarong-Party-Guy. Yo ! Man ! What's with the hand ?


Bali most spectacular temple, Uluwatu temple. Located high on the cliff top at the edge of a plateau. Below is the Indian ocean waves. This temple guard Bali from evil sea spirit.



Planet Hollywood Bali. Our friend attempted to make his mark here. Wassup duck?


Me & Arnie. Astala Vista babeh !

MAMMA MIA! here I come...My very first broadway show

Yes, I am very excited to present to you...........*drum rolling*................



MY VERY FIRST BROADWAY SHOW FROM WEST END, LONDON.

I'm going to watch MAMMA MIA! ! and I just love ABBA. Can't wait Can't wait

And I can already imagine myself.................

you can dance, you can jive.............
havin' the time of my life..............................
see that girl, watch that scene...............................
dig in the Dancing Queen...............................................

I've been going ABBA mania since I watched MAMMA MIA! the movie thriller on E!
Seeing Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and the others sing........

chiquitita, you and I know, how the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving, you'll be dancing once again and the pain will end, you will have no time for grieving.....

boy, I can go on and on and on...the songs were just SO INFECTIOUS !

Another bad Char Koay Teow Day.............

Searching for a decent plate of char koay teow here in KL is like searching for lost treasure in the pacific ocean. Virtually impossible.

Apart from the "Kampung Malabar" mari Char Koay Teow stall at Gurney Drive Restaurant, inside The Gardens, I have yet to taste one that I would really endorse. ahem ahem.

Penangites are always very proud of their hawker food, so proud it became an offence when the non-locals critize the local food.

I want to believe that I could find a decent CKT stall here in PJ/KL.
Each time, I passed a CKT stall and I would notice the stall owner fried the koay teow with such intensity, sweat dripped from his forehead (and into the koay teow).
I would order a plate and hope for the best.

99% of the time, I got dissapointed.

So now, each time I passed another CKT stall that displays "Penang CKT", I would shudder.

Yesterday, I fell victim to another char koay teow sorrow.
This time, it was at Pavillion food republic.
You won't missed this stall, it's opposite Mdm Kwan's Restaurant and it seemed like it's worth trying with attractive window display of actual people frying CKT with big wok.
Oh, when I saw their display of their newspaper cutting which shout "Best CKT in town", I decided to give it a shot and again, hope for the best.

Fortunately, I didn't have my camera with me to snap the pic of my CKT.
Otherwise, I would be traumatized each time I look at it !
Not only it taste awfully bad, there is no prawns at all ! not even one. ZERO !
The prawns are replaced with few thinly sliced fish cake.
And prawn is very important in CKT, the bigger the juicier the better.
It's like eating Big Mac without the chicken patty inside.
Doesn't make any sense, right?

I agreed with CS that he said he would fried a better CKT. I haven't seen him fried an egg before but I agreed with what he said !

So, the ridiculous CKT got no prawns....only has taugeh, few miserablee slices of fish cake and a sprinkle of 'koo chai'. That's it. That it all !

and it cost 7 bucks ! I wouldn't be blabbing here, if the (&$^&*@ at least taste like a bad CKT.
I didn't taste like CKT at ALL.....
To add salt to the injury, we ordered 2 plates.

Later, I realized something.....the Food Republic is a halal place and a good plate of CKT MUST be fried with pork fat. No wonder..........


This is only my personal opinion of the CKT stall. Fell free to try one whenever you're feelin' adventerous.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Attending the 7 habits class was not a planned one. Initially, I had chosen to enrol for the Grooming Class.
Yes, what was I thinking at that time? Thought it would be fun...
But my colleague thought otherwise. Instead, she said that I should go for the 7 habits class as she said it's very interesting.

Today, I completed the 3 days "process" at Parkroyal, KL and to describe the class as interesting would be an understatement.

Like what Paul said, the 7 habits is not a 3 day class, but a 3 day process.
All 16 of us join this process with "sluge" over our body and 15 of us completed the process cleansed ! (1 of the girl dropout cos she was absent on the 2nd day and Paul had to let her leave). hahahaha.....

Steven Covey wrote this book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and it bacame the blueprint for anyone seeking personal developement.
Believe me, these 7 habits are simple set of life rule yet a remarkable set of inspirational and aspirational standards for anyone who seeks to live a full and purposeful life.

I've drafted my Life's Mission Statement on the 2nd day.
There are loads of things that I would want to accomplish, some childish, some over the top, some just downright silly, but most of it are real and CAN be achieve.
Just that I have never put all these down in writtings.
All these came from deep within me and it felt so much clearer to me now after I have penned it down in words instead of just thoughts.

I'm so glad I did, otherwise it remains just a thought.

Though it's just a mere 3 days I found myself walking back on the track after going through pebbled track for a while. Now I can see where the track is heading to.


First published in 1989, the 7 habits are timeless and I found it to be even more relevant in todays life.

Sow a thought, reap an action;
Sow an action, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Mum's KL trip : the Black dress & the Black bread

Mum came to visit us last week and stayed over at my place with 1 main
mission : Go shop for an evening dress for 1st Nov ! I'll tell ya why later.


HAppy Happy Happy


Anyway, was cracking my head on where to go shop. Or rather which place stands a better chance of buying a decent dress considering that mum is only here for 3 nights.


Think Think Think


Ok. I decided to bring mum to Coast London, as these store specialized in pretty fun cocktail dresss which is also appropriate for dinner wear. Most of the dresses are knee length which is great. I bought mine there too.

So I decided to bring mum to Pavillion KL. The Coast boutique there is bigger than the one at Bangsar Shopping Village.

Reached there and saw that they have new arrivals ! Excited !
But I have to fight my temptation of looking at all the latest arrivals that I would like to try on and maybe buy and focus to find mum a dress that suit her.
Mum busy browsing through all the dresses at display......and nothing caught her eye.
I can see it in her eyes......
So, I pulled out several dresses that I thought would look good on her and shoved it to her to try it on...never try never no, right ?
Mum tried the LBD (Little Black Dress) and the pinkish red one.......
Mom doesn't like low cut and sleeveless, she told me later.

And I wondered, this mission is going to be impossible. But we were determined to find it.

Walked in to Club Monaco and THERE it is !!!! THE ONE !!

The design, the collar, the material, the sleeves, everyting is just perfect except for 1 small problem. It's BLACK.
Told mum not to worry too much cause black is classic and timeless.
And it's the new age, who cares whether it's red or black ???

Mum bought it later on.....and is very happy with the purchase.

Yipeeee.....clap hand. mission accomplished.


On the way back, we decided to buy that CHARCOAL BREAD at a baker's store inside Pavillion for thrill. Call us jakun, but we have never seen a
BLACK BREAD before !
We stared at the bread in awe wondering how is it made ? what is it made of? there's no flavour in it and why is it black? did they put charcoal in it ?
what makes it so black ?

Since we're so damn curious, mum bought it and ate 1 slice inside the car.

Taste exactly like regular white bread, only it's black. our questions are still left unanswered.....

anyway.....

Our charcoal black bread moments.....Pictures ! Pictures !
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This is the food that I am talking about. See how BLACK it is......not chocolate black.
But Black black.

Cam whoring with a slice of the black bread. Mum just can't stop laughing at that piece of bread.

Look at her face la......turned red but still can't stop giggling and laughing with me posing with that slice of BLACK bread.

Happy 42nd Birthday.

Yesterday and Friday, a grand celebration was held at the branch to celebrate its 42nd anniversary.

And I didn't knew that the branch is that OLD......

An event management team was hired to oversee to entire celebration.
Very carnival like with games, gifts, photo taking session, and baloons. Lots and lots and lots of baloons. Hitz FM cruiser came.
THR and MY FM cruiser did not make it. What a let down.



But.....but....but.... this humongous fruit cake DID NOT let us down, at all !!!
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We bought this cake at Cherry Cakehouse at Old Town. They make delicious fruit cake like this one. It's got grapes, longan, strawberry, peach and pineapple.
The fun part of this cake is you can cut it whichever way you want.
Example, I like grapes. So I just cut the bottom part horizontally so that the entire piece of cake is just GRAPES ! fun la !

We like baloons........red, blue, yellow, green, pink.....we LOVE then all !!!!


Games and gift station in front of the branch.


CORN girl.....not CON girl. lenglui making delicious buttery sweet popcorn. want some?



Posing behind the cake.

Penang,- fun yet sinful

Last weekend was the shortest trip back to penang ever since I moved to PJ.
This trip was rather refreshing cos I have the 3 mouseketeers with me of which 2 of them are on a makan-makan quest.
What better way to explore Penang than to have a local to show you the way !

Penang was included into the UNESCO World Heritage Site weeks ago, and I missed the street celebration.
I thought I would grab the opportunity to explore some of the heritage sites since I have not done this before !
To look at Penang in a different perspective......

Start of our journey. cam-whoring inside the car.

The state really takes the World Heritage Site status to a whole new level !

Khoo Kongsi.

Antique window pane and wooden door.
Like the look and feel. Very rustically beautiful.
This is his favourite pose. Don't ask me why.


Catching up with our latest gossip, news, etc......with the gals inside winter warmers, Gurney Plaza.

TBH & KPL

KPL, what are you diggin'?


Back to the mousekeeters. They decided to conquer Penang Hill the next morning. Their motivation was free mee hoon and coffee.
Some said that mee hoon and coffee never tasted better up there.
Instead they got free water and no mee hoon and no coffee.
And the water never tasted better anywhere else. How consoling..........


Down the hill, coconut never tasted better anywhere else !!! hahaha !
This is a classic shot of how coconut should be enjoyed.

Overall, we had a very sinfully fun trip. Anything more sinful than greasy char koay teow for lunch, dinner and lunch the next day? plus dripping oily oyster omelette for dinner and lunch.

Restoran Soon Lee

Each time when not only we hit but soared in our sales target, we would 'insist' for a well-deserved dinner.

Our boss suggested we go Seri Kembangan and that is where we headed last night.
Located at a commercial area next to South City Plaza. It's a corner shop called Soon Lee.

If you're new to that area, you'll definately pass by it without noticing cos it's not a fanciful shop with neon lights, eye catching signboard and stricking red or yellow table cloth.

That night, boss ordered suckling pig, roasted pigeon, deep fried frog, succulent assam prawns, lamb cutlet and my favourite dish of the night.......tasty chicken served in spicy hot ginger and wine soup. The fact that they served this dish inside aluminium foil makes it even more yummy.

This is by far the most delicious ginger chicken I have eaten so far.
Just like garlic, I have a bitter sweet relation with ginger as well.

I hate ginger most of the time, but I could have this ginger chicken anytime !

I want to believe

This latest episode of Ghost Hunters just blew me off the sofa. wtf
I hereby declare it the Mother of all their episodes.

Venue : St Augustine Lighthouse, Florida.

And I thought the Sanatorium where 63,000 people dies of tuberculosis was the most haunted. Wait till you watched this episode.

The workers at the light house have heard a man who hanged himself on the front porch, footsteps running up and down stairs and the voice of a 12-year-old girl calling out.

That night, Jason, Grant, Dustin and Brian all hear a woman's voice say "Help me."

Jason and Grant hear voices in conversation, see something block a window, spy a shadow floating near the lights, and notice a figure leaning over a railing near them, but when they run up the stairs, they find nothing. wtf?

Let me remind you that they are inside on of the tallest lighthouse in America and I'm sure anyone of you have seen one.

For the benefit of anyone whom have not seen a lighthouse.

This it how it looks like....



There can only be 1 entrace into a lighthouse, and that's from the ground.

There is no one else inside except the TAPS team.






Later that night, Brian and Dustin see something move across a window and notice a hand grabbing the railing.

The video clip showed something peeking over the railing.
If the figure they saw was solid, a nearby motion sensor should have turned on a light … but it didn't. !!!!!

Yikes !! double & tripple yikes !!! already got chills all over me at this point.

?????

The video clip also caught something moving quickly on the stairs. Chills up my spine le.

Also got clip showing Jason and Grant chasing something that climbed two flights of stairs in two seconds then looked back at them over the railing. wtf.

is the ghost trying to communicate????

At the end, I was actually happy that Jason and Grant FINALLY agree that the lighthouse is haunted.
Finally, a haunted place. These guys don't usually say that the place is haunted eventhough the place has very heavy 'activity'.

I say this is absolutely a Ghost Hunters classic. must see for yourself la.

You'll become a believe like me. hehe.

some boring stuff and my latest craz....

Last Friday was our Annual Dinner & Dance at Mandarin Oriental.
This year's theme was Lagend.

....and I decided to make a miss on this year's dinner.

I wasn't as excited as the years before for reasons only known to myself.
I longed for the time when I woke up on a Monday morning eager to get to work and enjoyed every minute of my time at work.

A colleague once said.....when you dragged yourself out to work every single day, maybe it's time for you reaccess your career path.

So here I am, still sitting on top of the fence undecided or rather can't decide when to jump to the other side.

Instead, me and Siong bought 2 boxes of durian and finnish 1 box that night. Planned to watched Kung Fu Panda, but I ended up doing facial instead.



Currently crazy about the GHOST HUNTERS !!!!
This not the typical, wanabe paranormal investigator I've seen thus far. They do not believe every piece of evidence gathered as paranormal. The teams always tries to debunk what they find and this gives some sorta credibility to their investigations.


But I tell you....when they do really caught something.....you would become instant believer.
There's one episode when the cameraman got hit hard by unseen spirit moving up from below the floor and ran over the cameraman. So hard, he literally flew and landed on his back. All caught on tape. Of course, the video was subject to intence scrutiny and no one, even they expert can explained what hapenned.

I could go on and on and on la........but I'll just end here. Go watch it yourself.
Oh, you won't get to see the paranormal 'happenings' on every episode. Maybe some 'heavy duty happenings' on few episodes only.

This is what makes Ghost Hunter so addictive.

So In yet so Out

So I finally decided to join the gang to Velvet last night. 9 of us. I thought it was in PJ but it was in KL.
Get what I mean.......?
Since I moved down here 5 years ago, I am not embarassed to say that I hardly ever entered any night club scene in KL and PJ. Some are bewildered as the club scene here are suppose to be...y'know.....more happening, more chicks, more of everything la !

OK. Back to the topic.

I also did not know that Velvet is actually another hall in Zouk. I've heard of Zouk. With all its publicity, who doesn't ?
I also did not know that they have such strict dress code. Let me know if I'm out of date.
They allow guys with short sleeved shirt with collar. That's standard.
Now, they also allow guys with no collared shirt, but if the shirt is long sleeved, you passed.
But what if the guy dressed appropriately, with covered shoes and stuff but happened to wear an Original Arsenal football jersey bought nike shop for RM200 bucks? You failed !
I know, it's stupid. maybe, the bouncer is a Man-U fan and intentionally boycott him. maybe. maybe. hmmmm...

We got in anyway.
They have to la ! 2 bottle of Black Label cost RM650!!!!!!!!
and it's suppose to be a promo !!! wtf

Inside, the place was rather cozy with red velvet backless sofas and lotsa drapes. Spacious too.
My taste of music. Pretty gals dressed to charbroiled other guys. good place to people watch and not being watched (for my case only).

But it wasn't long before the place turned into a overcrowded sardin fish can. Cigarette smoke so thick, it reminds me of Kuan Yim temple near Penang Road. You can barely open your eyes and your own tears sting like onion spray.

Left the place about 1 am. The gang still there. God knows when they left.

What I cant say here is..............If you're still in your early 20s with uncontrollable hormones and plenty of extra cash to burnt and don't mind inhalling potentially deadly smoke, this is THE place to be !

stupid travel bug

I'm still trying to figure out why I have this sudden urges to go to particular places.
I wanna go to Australia, but it's only to go to the Great Barrier Reef.
I wanna go Amsterdam, but only to Keukenhof Garden.
I wanna see the whales mating in South Africa.


I thinkI should stop watching travel & living channel for now.

homesick at home

CS left for Shanghai last night and i'm all alooooneeeeeee..........
Somehow, it doesn't feels like home when he ain't around.
Can't wait this friday la. And I have to deliberately miss my fav ghost hunter show this Wed.
All because i'm aloooooooneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..................

My first Wesak Day Procession

My 1st Wesak Day Procession Chronological of Events. Starring..............................................

As every now and then, you do see these familiar faces in my blog entry......no need for me to introduce further.

For more info....visit www.lce.gq.nu



Posing before the main float arrive.

We met at Pulau Tikus market, so it make perfect sence to feast first before walking the the Penang Buddhist Association at Burmah Road for the events. Brings back ol' memories eating our favourite lok-lok with uncle's speacial peanut sauce.

Taiwan Sausage Vs the humble vegetable.

We got so carried away dipping and eating and dipping and eating...that we almost missed the procession. Luckily, her mom called us just in time.

WhAT ?! Elvis has left the building ! hahahaha......"chabor, kia keh liao...kah meh ciak !"

Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk Walk
From Pulau Tikus market to Penang Buddhist Association.

Right behind the main Buddha float. Many people thinks it's auspicious to at least touch or hold the rope circulating the main float. All of us had our chance.

The Main Buddha float.

Feast again after the procession.

And don't forget to pretend you are the handphone promoter. This is one of her many cheap poses.


The END

Le Meridien Buffet

For RM90++ per person for a buffet dinner on a weekday is rather on the higher side, I thought.
But when the dinner is at the classy 5-star Le Meridien next to KL Hilton at KL Sentral, I thought why not? They might have something new.

And so we went. All 15 of us.

Arrived at the entrace of the underground parking and our cars were inspected for bombs, maybe drugs or dead corpse and any explosive materials by several Gurkha's guard.
Scared that we are some terrorist disguised in office wear coming to bomb their buffet spread.

Finally, we arrive. Spread looks good at one glance except for 1 thing. When I started to help myself, I can't help but wondered. The spread wasn't anything to shout about at all lor !!!
In fact, a bit (okay, maybe a lil' bit more) dissapointed. I tell you why i'm dissapointed:

1. The grill section not happening at all. No scallop. No Lobster. No Lai Lieu Har (mantis prawn). The chef grilled those stuff in advance and leave it in the pot. When you eat it, its already cold ! It's like, they grilled it and leave it there for 1/2 and hour.

2. We ordered 2 plate of paste. The pasta on one of the plate came out waaaayyyyy before Al Dante. The other plate came out perfect. Not consistent.

So I ended up devouring couple of california roll and their grill cod fish with butter sauce. Ah, these 2 I personally like. I like I like I like.

My favourite part, DESSERT.

I personally think that, if I were to ever pay RM90 bucks for their buffet, the ONLY reason I would come here for is their DESSERT !

Quite unique. Maybe I'm a bit hutan, but I never heard or tried TEPPANYAKI ICE-CREAM before lor. And I have eaten chocolate fondue many times before, but I never tried WHITE CHOCOLATE, DARK CHOCOLATE and MILK CHOCOLATE fondue all at the same time. Yes, they actually have 3 types of huge choc fondue side by side. I'm delighted.

Pictures !


Dark, Brown and White chocolate fondue.

Ice-cream teppanyaki. 2 scoops of ice-cream of your choice. They have over 30 selections of toppings to choose from. Choc chips, corn flakes, dried figs, apricot, macadamia, walnut, almond, marshmallow, raisins....so many more. You can choose as may toppings as you want. The chef will mix everything up on a piece of cold plate.

Looks like a piece of shit.


My DIY ice-cream teppanyaki. The flavour of my choice and the toppings of my choice. You can't get it anywhere else in the world.