Genting round 2

August 2007, my family and I went for a two day trip to Genting. BA and Tai Yee came along as well. It was the first time in many years since Hong Kong that we've actually went for a trip to anywhere as a family. I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable, perhaps not so much in the fun and exciting sense, but rather that the time spent with my whole family was great. And I could see from their faces that they missed it and enjoyed it lots too.

Our small but can-do hotel room.

We got to stay for free at First World hotel courtesy of one of my aunt's membership in the Genting shares. She generously gave us a stack of coupons which gives us benefits of all sorts such as free hotel stays, free buffet, discounts at certain places and etc. Thank you Sam Yee.

No, we did not stay here but just a nice backdrop photo.

Pretty sunset sky.

We sat some rides, walked around, had a sip of coffee and basically just chilled out. Then as usual, we got hungry in the middle of the night. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it) with my family, food is rarely of shortage. My theory is that after so many years of our ancestors starving and striving for food, we somehow inherited the innate drive to keep our stomachs well-fed, all in good means in order to justify all the blood, sweat, and hardship that our ancestors went through to ensure that the future generation may blossom. Justice is served with each bite. Hahaha. Perhaps a terrible excuse but anyways, here are the photos.

Pops hungry and waiting with chopsticks ready for...see below.

Very tasty Indomee with canned pork.

The following morning included more food. This time at a morning buffet at this restaurant in Genting Hotel. We sat near the balcony and had a pretty good view of the scenery outside. Below a photo of a plate full of awfully sinful eggs, bacon and hotdogs.

Bad for the heart, good for the soul. Don't try this at home.

Have a seat at your very own personal spying spot.

After noon, we went for a short visit to the mushroom farm and consequently headed back for home. We dropped by Leong Kee restaurant at Gohtong Jaya, famous for its soft yet slighty crunchy "fa lam pou", brinjal with "har mai", and steamded catfish. Their frog's legs are pretty good too but we did not order it. Overall a pleasant and relaxing trip for all.

Fa Lam Pou. (claypot cooked pork strips in sweet sauce)

My fav brinjal with "har mai", garlic and cili padi.

Fresh and plump Pak Sou Gong. (steamed catfish)

Dog's Head Trip

In the mid of July 2007, I went to Sabah with a couple of my old school buddies (Nick & SieakMeeng) and some new friends. This would be my 3rd time going to the Land Below the Wind. When I was a young I've always wondered what it meant..."Below the Wind? Under the wind?? Kentut issit..." Hahaha. Well, it actually means that the land is strategically located below the typhoon belt which makes Sabah somewhat climatic-disturbance-free. Aptly named, but honestly, who would have figured it out unless they looked it up? Hence the post title Dog's Head Trip for more visually obvious reasons. The trip lasted for 5 days but we really made the most of it. As with my previous trips to Sabah, this one was just as enjoyable.

Sleepy Nick dreaming of Tuaran mee.

On the first day, we left in a very early morning flight to Kota Kinabalu which lasted a couple hours. Quite a pleasant sleepy flight. Soon after arriving, our hired Toyota Innova van driver, Mr. Au (no, he's not screaming in any kind of pain), picked us up to drive us to our backpacker's lodge, Velvet, in KK town for a very quick check-in. He then brought us to the town of Tuaran to taste the famous Tuaran noodles which was very tasty. Food photos posted at the end. After filling our hungry bellies, we proceeded to our journey to Mount Kinabalu on this long, narrow & winding road, which was filled with lots of tricky turns and unbelievably slow drivers in front of us which constantly prompts for dangerous overtaking. Our skillful & patient Mr. Au was kind enough on our ears not to say any "chow wa" to the sluggish road hoggers. Haha. En route, we stopped by a scenic photo-taking spot, probably to make sure we have photographic evidence that we're not being kidnapped.

The cool bunch (left-right) : Sandra, me, Ee Ling, Edward, Yee Weng, Yew Kong, Nick. *1

The scenic view these hill-house residents have each day.

Handsome Sabah dog on guard duty!

Mesilau Nature Resort was our destination as the place where we would spend the night before embarking on the mountain climb the next day. The Mesilau resthouse, situated at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu was a pretty decent & comfy place with many bunk beds. Since there weren't many climbers around, we had virtually all the 8 dorm bathrooms to ourselves. Haha. As seen in the photo below, we were quite happy to have finally reached Mesilau and being able to stretch our cramped legs.

Look fellow citizens! Petrol price increasing again! Yew Kong looking angry about it. *2

On the second day, in the early morning around 8.30am, we started our journey towards Laban Rata, situated a long 6km away. We took the longer but scenic Mesilau trail instead of the shorter but dreary-looking Timpohon trail. No regrets about that.

At the start of our journey. *3

It would take close to 8 hours of climbing to reach there. Along the way there were various life-saving pitstop pondoks, each of which has a water pipe to refill your bottle with fresh although untreated mountain water.

Part of the climb feels like the secret stairs that lead to Mordor. *4

With a Gandalf-ish stick and a tiny waterfall behind me. *4

The climb to Laban Rata was steep and sluggish. It was a monotonous and stamina-sapping journey. However, there were really scenic views if one stopped and took a look around.

I love these mountain photos. =)

We had to drag ourselves up the final 1-2km as the air was getting thiner and the rocks were getting steeper, but we finally reached Laban Rata around 4.30pm. The relief of seeing the white building walls of the Laban Rata resthouse was a truly welcoming sight.

Our Laban Rata resthouse...with heater! Yay! *4

Ahhh! Who stole my blanket!!? *4

Frozen smiles was the on-going theme here. *4

The SMKSU gang.

The sunset at Laban Rata was wicked awesome! As Laban Rata is strategically situated in between the layers of clouds, thus with the sunset's rays reflecting from the top of the lower fluffy layer together with higher blanket of clouds, the atmosphere was simply amazing! The photo below really doesn't do justice because it simply doesn't reflect the full wonderful absorbing experience of actually being there in the midst of it all. We snapped a lot of photos but also had to be quick because the sunset would be gone in a matter of minutes!

God made this.

On the third day, early in the morning around 2.30am, we started our final climb towards the peak. The night sky from the Kinabalu mountain was simply remarkable, a huge encompassing blanket of countless shining stars of various sizes & luminosity, magnificently spread out before my eyes. It just makes you stand in awe of God. Unfortunately my camera wasn't able to take a decent photo. This time the climb was extremely tough for me & much steeper than the previous day, in addition to being very dark. There were parts where I had to pull myself up using ropes on a very vertical rocky climb up and there were also parts whereby the steps were just a few inches wide! Having a fear of height is not a good thing to have. Haha. The steep climb was extremely exhaustive. Eventually my calves finally gave way and cramped badly as I limped my way towards the 7km mark nearing dusk. Seeing the condition I was in, the mountain guide prevented me from carrying on. He didn't want to have to carry me down! It wasn't easy for me but that was it, my Kinabalu mountain climb stopped there. Morning broke soon after that.

Morning from the Kinabalu mountain side.

As the morning light filled the night sky, I slowly started my way back down to Laban Rata. My cramping calves made even the descent down the mountain agonising.

Some bright green funny-looking moss.

However, the rest of the group made it to the top just in time for the sunrise. Perfect timing.

Happy Nick at Low's Peak. *4

After meeting back at Laban Rata, we continued our descent down the mountain using the shorter but quite boring Timpohon trail. It was still a real knee-busting experience for everyone.

Misty forest during our descent.

We reached the Kinabalu Park gates after a 4-5 hour descent. We were all exhausted and glad to see Mr. Au waiting for us. Most of us slept all the way back to the Velvet lodge, where we had our shower and cleanup. By then we were very ready for dinner! Our aching legs made us walked like penguins as we searched for a place to have seafood. We found this place nearby where several seafood restaurants are circled around a big stage in the centre. While some traditional folk dances ensued on stage, we gobbled down our dinner heartily. Surprisingly, Klang seafood tasted better.

Our fourth day of the trip was spent at the nice sandy beaches of some of the famous islands nearby. We took a boat ride from the KK jetty to Pulau Mamutik, one of the main islands, where we had a fun time snorkeling and picnic-ing on the beach. It was well-needed nice & relaxing time spent at the beach and just soaking in the warm sun & breezy sea.

Upon arrival at Pulau Mamutik. *3

Our comfy picnic spot.

Beautiful beach at Pulau Mamutik.

Posing & looking cool. Yes, that's a sand chicken on the bottom right. *3

Three ma lat lous snorkeling. *3

On our last day in KK, we didn't do much except that a few of us went for a leg massage which was pretty painful due to our aching legs from all the climbing we did. We cringed and made faces each time they massaged our sore leg muscles but nevertheless it was an oddly relaxing sensation. Haha.

Our bunker beds at Velvet, comfortable and with air-cond.

The wonderfully torturous leg massage. *3

Aerial view of KK City on the flight home.

That's it for the Sabah trip 2007. Even though short but it contained good memorable times. Presenting the Sabah food photos below.

Mango slice chicken. Funny name but tastes very "hoi wai".

The famous Tuaran mee, this one with char siew.

Thick curry chicken at Mesilau Nature Resort.

Paku-pakis @ ferns. Popular vege dish in Sabah.

O'chien in KK town. Not bad but can't beat Penang yet.

Yummy beef noodles with assorted beef parts.

Tuaran mee with some "stuff". I can't figure out what some of them are, but it tastes good.

Beaufort noodles always have loads of vegetables on them.

*1 Photos courtesy of Edward Ling
*2 Photos courtesy of Sandra
*3 Photos courtesy of Ee Ling
*4 Photos courtesy of Nicholas Hoh

10 Months Ago

The title sounds like a movie in flashback mode. Haha. I'm not a big fan of blogging but I enjoy reading my friends' blogs. In fact, I treat this blog as more of a summary report on the events in my life which, without the intention to be but, can be made public.

The next few posts, including this, will about what happened during my 10 month blogging hiatus.

In late June, I went to Genting with some church mates for a short one night trip. Hotel Theme Park had pretty nice rooms. It was enjoyable riding those indoor and outdoor theme park rides again. Their new Spiderman ride was a unique & exhilarating experience! Oddly they call it Spiderman even though it resembled Superman more as I don't recall Spiderman being able to fly. Haha. Overall a nice short trip.

View from a cafe in Casino Genting

Early of July, I went to Port Dickson with another bunch of church mates for probably the record shortest trip in my life. We reached the beach nearing midnight. The BBQ food was good albeit with a good dose of crunchy sand and charcoal added in, but what the heck. It was extremely dark and with bottles of beer around it didn't seem to matter. Not long after, we went back to Ocean View Resort to sleep. Right after waking we left for Pasar Besar Seremban to have their famous beef noodles, which we found out was famous indeed but the taste doesn't match the hype truth be told. We left Seremban in the afternoon, thus making it my shortest trip which lasted around 12 hours. Quite efficient really. Haha.

* Port Dickson...or as far as we know.
Doesn't matter really, there's food

The famous Pasar Seremban beef noodles

* Photo courtesy of Foong Yin

Fortunate Fortuner

I still remember that late Friday in April. That evening, I went home early, it was cell night. Dad stayed back at the office. I had just finished dinner when dad called. He sounded distressed and was breathing heavily. His car was missing from the office parking basement! It was a brand new Toyota Fortuner. (Yeah the cruel irony of the car's name being Fortuner haha) I remember telling myself "Oh no, here we go again". Our family had the unfortunate experience of loosing a vehicle. Just six years ago we lost our Ford Ranger right in front of our house. It was towed away. Anyways, thankfully pops himself was alright. I told him to calm down and be careful just in case the thieves were still around. I gave a quick shout to my mom about the car as I sped off to the office. She was in the bathroom and kinda freaked out TVB drama style. (quite funny now that I think about it. Heheh=) Dad and I searched the whole basement and office area head to toe. We weren't expecting to find it but we had to try anyways. Later that night we lodged a police report at the Kelana Jaya police station. Apparently we weren't the only recent victims...in fact our office security guards were actually aware of these thefts and yet they didn't take any precautionary measures to prevent it from happening again. So much for what's left of our trust in them.

We went home late, tired, hungry and with a mix of emotions from angry to glum. If anything good came out of this episode, it was our family & relatives' caring attitudes in time of need. My dad was very touched that throughout our little family's ordeal, we urgently pulled together to help out, gave comfort, consoled & cheered him up. Many concerned relatives called up from our Ipoh hometown to England to US.

Then in mid-May we got a very surprising & unexpected news. Dad's Fortuner turned out to be quite fortunate after all. During a raid on the seaport in Singapore, the Singaporean police recovered several stolen vehicles, inclusive of our Fortuner, ready to be shipped off in large containers to Dubai! Imagine that! However the thieves got away. The very fact that they intended to fully export these vehicles to another country meant that our car was harmlessly still in one piece instead of being taken apart like Lego. Truly a blessing. Aside from some scratches, a cut steering wheel and missing side mirror, our Fortuner was in pretty good shape. Though it would take an additional 3 months for our car to be fully repaired & returned to us due to the long queue of recovered cars at the Toyota workshop, our insurance has fully covered all the expenses involved.

All in all I thank God for guiding my family through it all. Looking back, I believe I gained something from that experience, though obviously not monetarily, but rather a stronger sense of trust in God & assurance that even though life can't always be in my hands, it doesn't always have to be. Sometimes when we can only do so much, we have to learn to leave the rest to God. Faith & works.

Mediterranean

No really big news or events happened during March 2007, just lots of little big events. Here's one.

March was a month of birthdays for me. Some of my friends and also my dad. We went to Sheraton Hotel for dinner buffet. It was and probably forever will be a very expensive buffet but pop deserves every bit of it. Every few months or so, Sheraton's brasserie (which still sounds like brassiere to me) will change their buffet theme and during the time we went, it was Mediterranean! I have been waiting for it to come along since the last few years, which were mostly local or Asian themes. It was as close as I could get to a purely Italian one.

As the theme goes, there were many western & middle-eastern dishes such as fluffy breads, lasagna, pasta, salmon, lamb chops, cheese mushroom, mixed vegetables, a whole BBQ set in the open air outside, oysters, prawns, beef/chicken/lamb briyani, satay, and a lot more unnamable appetisers and dishes. The pasta was truly the highlight. It was custom-made, meaning it was totally up to my spoilt choice to select the various pastas, ingredients and sauce all lined up in front of the cooking counter. After pointing my gleeful fingers at which pasta to mix with what ingredients to go with which sauce, the chef would whip up the order right in front of me, Teppanyaki style. My sis and I asked to add extra extra cheese on the pasta...but ultimately it still wasn't enough for us so we took matters into our own hands & added more of the grated cheese ourselves, much to the chef's amusement. Hahaha

They had a variety of deserts too such as cakes, pudding, kuih-muih, soft bread, cookies, ice kacang, teh tarik, and a few choices of ice cream. Tasty as they were, they were also too sweet for comfort. The other only downside to the buffet was that the lasagna turned out to be a weird sour-tasting vegetarian lasagna. What a tragedy! Haha... All in all, we had a good time there dining, sipping coffee/tea, chatting and enjoying the atmosphere. My sis and I shared the bill as a birthday gift for pops. It was well worth it. Hopefully they will have an Italian theme someday.

Cakes

Chinese New Year 2007 in February

Went back to Ipoh for a few nights, with the usual dinners, angpows, and greetings to relatives, and sometimes unknown relatives who I have no idea what to call them by in Cantonese. It's so much simpler in English - uncle or auntie, that's it, period. (it should be made the law) That's my last resort when I can't figure out how they are related to me. Hahaha..

Anyways, it's the usual CNY customs and all but I still enjoy having it once every year. This year though, my sister had the "feel" of making cakes, after a very long cake-making hiatus. It was a rare moment whereby she had the mood to bake cakes, as rare as it is to film the endangered and elusive Siberian tiger in snow. I gladly helped her out. After all, I had too much of Astro. I found out it was quite a task to stir the cake mix by hand, but after you get the hang of it, it's quite cool to see all the ingredients and colours blend together in swirling patterns. Plus, it trains your arm muscles. Haha..The best part of the cakes, apart from their freshly baked aroma, was definately the crispy edges and crusts. In total, we made five types of cakes over two days - chocolate walnut, coffee, custard, sugarless, & malaiko. I'd put in the photos but I don't have broadband yet.

Overall, it was a nice and pleasant CNY this year with quite a cool weather in Ipoh, surprising to say. Maybe next year my sister will return from her even longer pizza-making hiatus.

Wedding 2007

This post about MunKeong and SuetBeng's wedding in January 2007.

Before a wedding, there is a bachelor's night or a buck's night. Munky's buck night started off with a dinner at TGIF with his OCF friends. This was actually my first look at a bachelor's night cuz none of my close male friends have married. I had the juicy Jack Daniel's medium-done burger, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After that we made MunKeong dress ridiculously and perform some embarrassing stunts around Subang Parade and later at Sheraton Hotel, details of which should not be mentioned here but suffice to say that it was totally hilarious, although some were quite disgusting! Hahaha!

Their wedding day went smoothly. They had the flower kids, pretty decorations, soft background music, lots of photo-taking and all that wedding jazz. SuetKeong looked their best. The wedding dinner at Sheraton was great too. I got to see my friends from CBC there, all dressed smartly and elegantly, smiling widely and cheering for the newlyweds. Funny thing, I had four types of drinks on my table that night, red wine, Coke, chinese tea & water. The food was very well presented, nice atmosphere, with some fire-sword-wielding waiters even, but as usual these dinners are of good quality not quantity. Nevertheless it was a very enjoyable time. I'm waiting for our next cell member to tie the knot. Haha!

Christmas Eve dinner & New Year trip

I'm very lagging in my blog updates. Hahaha...I just realised, isn't that an ironic contradiction? "Lagging updates" Haha! But seriously, here I am writing about my December events in February.

Christmas Eve dinner was great, as every year. Though it was more fun last year when Ben was around to celebrate with my family but then again my auntie from Ipoh is here with us this time. I cooked the majority of the food, such as hot dogs, ham, scrambled eggs, & mushrooms. Dad handled the main meal of beef steak while mom & TaiYee made the ABC soup & salad. The turkey was a tad dry though. It was a nice, enjoyable, cosy Christmas Eve dinner and of course the presents were nice too! In fact, the only thing that was bugging me was that I couldn't go for my church's Christmas dinner. My cell was in charge of the games and door gifts (coconut candy) this year, which I helped out, but in the end couldn't experience it for myself. I even bought a gift for exchange and I wonder who got my spastic-looking turtle. Sigh...if only there were two Christmas Eves every year!

On New Year's Eve, I went on a 3-day trip to Lumut, near Sitiawan with Sieak Meeng, Nick, and some others. It was quite a relaxing trip and we ate lots of Sitiawan food. We didn't do much because it was a very low-activity trip. We basically ate food, toured around, went to some beaches, ate more food, played some fun board games, and ate more food. We also went to the kampung area where I ate/drank two whole freshly picked coconuts! Then we spent New Year's Eve playing Pictionary, which I found out, is a very fun board game. Maybe I'll get one someday and bring it to cell for welcome.

The Vacation

In Dec 06, my church organised a musical entitled "The Vacation", some time before Christmas. It comprised of 2 musicals & 1 narrative story. Initially, I volunteered as a bouncer, but my scaring services weren't needed. Hahaha!

Instead, I was in charge of lighting, spotlights to be specific. It was a funny & tiring experience because we had to make do with what little we had. Standing on a plastic chair with the power unit hung around my neck by raffia string and with coloured filters in a plastic bag, I manually navigated the spotlights to focus light onto the actors/actresses.

Enough bout me. The play went very well, in fact the play was entertaining to watch even after I've seen & heard the actors/actresses recite their lines for countless times during rehearsals. The large crowd was quite beyond my expectations too, despite the rain & traffic on both nights, there were still so many around. Let's hope the audience received something meaningful from the stories. I was quite tired after all the standing & inconspicuous navigating of spotlights. But it was worth every bit of it to see the fun & joy in the eyes of everyone involved.

I believe there was a cheeful applause in heaven on those nights. In the end, it was a very successful musical for our little church and I'm looking forward to what's planned for this year.

Discovery Days

Quite a number of events has come and gone during my blogging absence. Here's one from Nov 06:

Matthew volunteered in CBC's Discovery Days children's camp. It was a two day camp, but I only managed to help out on the 2nd day, Saturday, when the kids went to Zoo Negara. I've not been to the zoo since the night safari a few years back. Not too much has changed though. Truthfully, I thought I was gonna be terrible with the kids but it actually turned out fine. They were quite controllable (emphasis on QUITE) and it was a great & fun time at the zoo. It was such a funny time after we got back from the zoo to church. The kids were enjoying all the dancing, mad scientist, clown act, and etc. I myself enjoyed the acts too! Hahaha!

I was pretty tired after the whole day out but truly, it was worth it. In fact, after all that, my only regret was missing the previous day's events! Never thought I'd say this but I think I might consider lending a helping hand in the children's ministry one day.