Spaghetti Grill, Midvalley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur
If you’re looking for a place to eat at Midvalley, do give this place a try. It’s located on the same row as Chili’s but just further down. It offers quite authentic Italian pasta and pizza with bottomless drinks for a dirt cheap price of RM10. The taste of the cuisine might not be as good as more authentic places, such as Little Italy in KK, but it’s definitely better than some other pasta places such as Pizza Hut or Domino’s.
Watch out for this signboard the next time you are at Midvalley
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The interior gives you a calm and cozy feeling. This, along with bottomless drinks, might stop you from leaving ^^
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Can watch sports here also (Too bad World Cup is over)
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Some of the food on the RM10 set lunch. There’s also a dinner set which cost around RM16 which includes soup and other appetizers (can’t remember, sorry)
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Calzone (simple but yet delicious, but it sort of look like an oversized curry puff)
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Chicken Bolognese pasta (with a piece of garlic bread on the side)
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Chicken salad (looks like KFC popcorn chicken plus some vegetables)
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Pepperoni Pizza (A lot better than what’s offered by the Pizza Hut)
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They really have a brick oven with wood fire at the back of the restaurant.
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Anyway, do give it a try.
You might be wondering what I was doing there recently right?
I met up with the bride here to give her the wedding photos. And thus, ends my first wedding assignment.
In case you didn’t catch that post, visit here.
The Food in Penang
Please make sure you are not hungry when you’re reading this or you just might get more hungry at the end of the post
I didn’t just went for the Proteomics Workshop in Penang nor did I just went to take photos at St Anne’s Church, I had a great time filling myself up with some great food as well.
This is all thanks to Olivia, JJ and Dominic.
The day after I finished the workshop, JJ took me to Seberang Perai where Olivia was staying at and our first stop was Sungai Udang (Coordinates: precisely at N05 9.050; E100 27.750)
This place is famous for its curry seafood which I had to say was great 
~Curry Fish~
~Curry Crab~
They serve the dish with either bread or rice. Imagine dipping bread into the curry and eating it. (I’m salivating).
Quench the spiciness of the food with a bottle of cool sugarcane juice
After that we ventured to a night market nearer to the Seberang Jaya area where Olivia recommended some of the nicer food to me.
~Some type of chicken~
~Soft version of the egg rolls you normally have during CNY. I like this one~
~Sandwich with BBQ pork and meat floss in it. Damn nice~
~Finished it with this nice cool dessert~
At night, we ventured to somewhere (I really should take note of what I eat and where I eat and how much it cost)… to have a steamboat dinner. I remember it was nearby Bukit Mertajam area though.
~Steamed fish steamboat with the extras dishes we ordered~
Later, Dominic went across the road to buy some of the nicest kuih I have ever tasted. Seriously damn nice.
~The kuih~
~The family that made them…Vehicles were lining up literally to get some of these kuih~
And finally, the next morning, I had a nice tasting hor fun for breakfast in Penang. This one can really fight with the one in Perak
All in all, thanks to Olivia once more for bringing me around Penang to ‘see’ Penang through my taste buds.
Food in Pangkor (July 2010)
We went to this place called Ye Lin seafood garden which sit pretty much within walking distance (around 1km) of Vikri Chalets. Ye Lin, is apparently one of the best seafood restaurant in Pangkor and I really agree with that statement. I had one of my best seafood experience in Ye Lin. I would really recommend this place to everyone whose visiting Pangkor.
*Apparently the whole dish cost around RM125 for 5 people, which considering what we ate was well worth it*
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~Soft shell crabs~
~Floured cuttlefish~
~Laksa steamed fish~
~Cray fish~
Reviews: Nijyumaru Japanese Restaurant, Sutera Utama, Johor.
Managed to grab a bit here with Janice (although it would seem like she’s the one craving for it) and a few friends during my stay at Johor while covering Li Hong’s wedding (Photos might be up soon)
I’ve heard quite a lot from Janice about this Japanese Restaurant and it will be a pity not to give it a try while I was there.
Food’s a bit on the expensive side but since we did have quite a good lunch, we didn’t really order much to eat.
*Photos are taken by me and Janice. Since we were both snapping away at the food, I’m not really sure which one is taken by me and which one by her. So even though I watermarked it, credits go to her as well*
This is Seafood Nasu. An assortment of seafood in an eggplant (RM 18)
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This should be the Sal Mentai Yaki (RM 14)
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Soft shell crab tempura (RM 12)
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Sake haru maki (RM 18)
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Unagi Ura Maki (RM 15)
I hope I didn’t get the menu wrong. It was sometime ago when I ate it. All in all, definitely one of the best Japanese food I had so far. Well worth a second visit.
Photos: Shirley’s birthday 2010
Place: TGI Fridays, The Gardens Midvalley KL.
Date: 12th June 2010
Photos:
Speak no evil
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The cake
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The chilli sauce
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The grilled lamb chop
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The girls
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The girls and one guy
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The over-photoshopped-photo of a girl.
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The table at the side
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The backdrop of TGI Fridays
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The poor little birthday girl who had to come by KTM because her bf is a bit busy on that day. (Next time tell us earlier so we can go fetch)
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The challenge: Blow it!!! Blow it!!!
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The crazy look. @.@
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The celebration (I like his hat)
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The slice of cake
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My Ferrari
Nikon 35mm f/1.8G
Gotten this lens recently
Really love the bokeh but it becomes a bit hard to control at f/1.8
Also distortion is quite easily seen using this lens
But it gives really sharp photos.
Tested it out during a trip to Papa John’s pizza recently
Will most probably be my fixed-on lens if I don’t need a zoom or the 50mm higher prime.
My journey with Esme [My D90]
Warning: Newbie giving advices, so not all info might be right. Do correct me if I’m wrong.
It was 2 years of training with my semi-pro digital camera before I decided to make the transition to using a DSLR. The transition was because I found that there were still a lot of limitations on a digital camera and on the contrary of my experience in a digital camera, I haven’t had much practice on a DSLR before I got mine.
I remember when Esme first arrived. I spent a few hours reading through the manual, understanding only parts of it before I started my hands-on on it. And a lot of things really seemed new to me. It really takes a while to get used to it.
I gotten Esme late November 2009 mainly because I was planning to bring her to Taiwan with me during my trip. I remember experimenting with Esme a few days before the trip, among which I went to Putrajaya to take some night shots [Which mostly turn out horrible]. Some of the photos are shown below:
Horrible!!! [Quite underexposed]
One thing which I really couldn’t get used to then was using the viewfinder instead of the liveview. [FYI: viewfinder is where you look through with your eye to see what you are taking photo of, and liveview is what you find on most digital camera LCD screen where the image you want to take photo of is shown on the screen]. This caused quite a problem because I totally lost my ‘balance’ as in I couldn’t make my photos look balanced. It’s either leaning towards one side or the other.
The photo looked tilted here.
And that caused a lot of cropping to get the images balanced. Even now, I still do a lot of cropping especially when things like that happen.
After that I became a bit conscious about the lens smudges and dust off the lens every now and then. especially how much a single lens cost so I went to read up on how to take care of lens and gotten myself a UV filter to put on every time I’m near water or near the beach. I’ve even gotten myself a lenspen to ‘clean’ the lens when it’s necessary
Then a few days before I got to Taiwan, I gotten a circular polarizing lens (CPL) filter which helps in making the skies bluish especially when it looks boring. It also helps in reducing reflections which really came in handy especially when I was taking photos in the aquarium and by the seaside. The only problem with the filter was that it’s full potential can only be unleashed when the sun is at a proper direction. It also did help a bit while I was taking photo out of moving vehicles as it reduces the reflections from the glasses. I guess I might be using it as a tone down filter also if I’d want to make river flows seemed smooth especially on sunny days since CPL filters darkens the exposure by one or two stops. Some better photos from Taiwan [even better might not be too good]
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The following photos were taken with CPL filter on. Notice the lack of reflections from the glass
In the end, I did get quite a number of nice photos from Taiwan but my framing and composition was horrible at that moment. Not to mention that there’s still a number of things I still couldn’t understand. So after the trip, I started reading a number of books on composition and tips and tricks on taking photography. I would really recommend Petersen’s Photographic Digital Photo Guide which can be found in bookstores in Malaysia. There are currently 5 volumes of this magazine out and the guide really helps a lot in teaching you framing, composition, exposure, taking shots of nature, lenses etc etc. Do grab a copy if you find one at a bookstore near you. There’s also another 1-volume magazine which teaches on basic photography techniques and some post processing techniques called Ultimate Guide to Digital Photography, 3rd edition.
Source: Petersen’s Photographic Digital Photo Guide
I was very much engrossed in reading up on photography for the next 2 months and while reading about that, I learned about the nifty fifty lens [50mm prime lens f/1.8] which was one of the cheaper lens which give good bokeh [Bokeh means how some lens can throw certain areas out of focus depending on where you are focusing at]. I’ve read about how potential this particular lens was and decided to give it a try. Bought it, and played around with it and learnt a lot of things after playing with it. Its so hard to get the focus right especially at f/1.8. Another thing which I failed to realize was how narrow 50mm was. Being a prime lens, you cannot change the zoom in it and so you’d have to adjust yourself and your subjects just to get a shot right [which frankly is what photographers should do]. And you’d have to stand very very far away if you want to take group photos. Very far away especially when the group was big. I found out about this while using it to take photos of the big large group during the CNY dinner. Failed photo below
I was standing quite far away when I took this photo and all I can see is still half of the people present. [Note to self: Don’t use 50mm prime lens to take group photos]
But the good thing about the 50mm prime is that with the proper settings you can get something like this:
Notice the bokeh
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The following shows just how powerful the depth of field of a 50mm prime lens can be at f/1.8
Focus on foreground…
and then
Focus on midground [the pillows] throw both the foreground and the background out of focus.
and finally
Focus on background [the plastic bags] throwing both the bottle and the pillows out of focus.
And with that, the possibilities are almost limitless. Imagine what a f/1.4 or an f/1.2 can do.
But it’s often very hard to get the focus right without proper practice. I’ve gotten spoilt photos because the focus was off. Imagine a photo with the eyes in focus but the nose out of focus.
Till now I’m still practicing with the 50mm prime lens.
After I gotten the lens, I decided to take back revenge on my failed first shoot at Putrajaya at night and gotten myself a tripod and this time with the proper knowledge, went for a Round 2 photo shoot session at night. Guess who won?
Sorry for the watermark but I really want to use it for some other purposes.
After that I noticed that at night it was hard to take photos of people at night so I invested in a hot shoe flash.
And I managed to overcome the darkness and played around with bounce flash [which is basically bouncing the flash off the walls to make more natural light and not use the flash directly on the subject] and filled flash [by which you flash in broad daylight to reduce the shadow effect produced by the unique features on the human face or by other things]. Also learnt to make a better bounce card as shown here.
I’ve learnt all this to prepare for the CSSUPM Annual Dinner by which I was one of the photographers. You can refer to this link to see the photos.
One of the nicer photos.
Even so, most of the photos are a bit overexposed since I was using Auto flash with the flash aimed at the ceiling, so it almost every-time gave out a full powered flash which overexposed the subjects. Will use manual controls to control the bounce flash power after this.
Also Joachim, a junior of mine who has more experience in the photography field also taught me about color balance, about how to maintain the proper color of what you saw. Very often we have seen photos taken under orange-ish light which cast a strong orange-ish color on the skin and this can be properly corrected by presetting color balance before taking the photo or do it during post processing. This became very useful and reading about this eventually lead me to learn about another feature in photography which is using spot metering. I really want to try some spot metering portraits soon especially shots that darken most of the face but keeps parts of it visible.
And finally I went for my virgin fireworks shoot with Esme by which a mistake on my part cost us better fireworks photos. But I will redeem myself in the next fireworks event I’m going to go to.
One of the nicer fireworks photo.
Thus is my journey so far with Esme, and I’ll be doing some more photo shoots with her to get more used to it.
Sometimes I get the feeling that, photography is not only a hobby, but a passion.
Best crabs in Labuan
I ate some of the best crabs in Labuan before coming back to UPM. Dad brings us out for dinner last Saturday night to this place called Anjung Ketam which is located somewhere near Tanjung Aru… Just go onto the road towards Wong Wo Lo 2 housing area and then keeping going straight till you see a road leading away from the bigger road with the sign, Tanjung Aru on it… And the place is also closeby SK Tanjung Aru I think… Travel for about 5 minutes or so on the straight road and then you’ll see a blue sign on the right side of the road… Turn in there and you will see the small seaside restaurant with the best crabs in Labuan…
~The view at night~
~One of the stalls there… There are a total of three stalls here~
~The seaside restaurant… Unfortunately, there is nothing to see out at sea at night around here… And be ready with a sweater or wear something warm as the sea breeze will continuously chill you..~
~Steamed crabs~
~The best dish of the night… Butter Garlic Crabs… Simply amazing… I started off with the steamed crabs but had this for the rest of the night after I taken a bite of it… The dishes shown here are from the rightmost stall… Gerai No 1~
The crabs are just so nice… And the price was really quite cheap as well…
Lets see… We had.. 2 plates of the steamed crabs as shown above… And then 2 crabs of the butter garlic crabs… And then a steamed fish… And a plate of oyster sauce cooked kailan… And 2 jugs of lime plum juice… And all of us… A party of 10 people… 5 kids… Couldn’t finish all of it and ended up tapao-ing back…
The price???
RM 170
Considering that you had 10 people eating for it… Everyone only pays RM17… And then… I had my fill of crabs until I couldn’t take in anymore of it…
It felt like an all you can eat buffet of crabs for RM17… Totally worth it…
I’ll definitely come again…
Anyone care to join me??
C Reunion Dinner 2009
First off… The C Reunion Dinner was held at a restaurant which I had visited at least twice before this for other dinners. My first visit to JUMBO restaurant at South City was when it was still called Golden Lake restaurant. And that happened during my 1st year CAD back in 2005.
The second time I ate another dinner at this restaurant was during the 2008 CSSUPM Annual Dinner (alternative review-same author) last March. And by chance the Reunion Dinner is held at the exact same room as the CSSUPM Dinner. So guess I’m quite acquainted to the place already.
~Sorry the photos taken during the night wasn’t really good… I’m kinda disappointed~
~Everyone, this is Samantha… Best dressed for 1st years~
~The few 3rd years. The post grads was seated alongside a 2nd year and the 3rd years. Surprisingly there was more post-grads than 3rd years… What happened to them???~
~Throughout the night, there were activities that requires for punishments such as pulling the ears~
And the prizes was different things ranging from simple tit-bits (I got a packet of jelly) to cash prizes (The most is RM10 ONLY…~~) Well, at least getting jelly is better than getting 10 cents or 20 cents.
I just noticed that I didn’t really take much photos of the place where they had their dances… Only have videos of those dances… Will be uploading them shortly…
But as in any dinner… There will be a first year who is the most unfortunate because he has to sit elsewhere to control the A/V (Sort of like what I did for the 2nd Year Biomed Annual Dinner)… And for this time, it was this guy.
~He’s sitting on the floor~
And he was the one who get the least exposure as well… See… Even when those who noticed him want to take photo of him, there are two others who jump in front of him and block him… Kesiannya…~
Feel like there may have been a pact to stop him from shining out throughout the night…
Something like this
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Food wise… There is Yee-Sang… Which we ‘lao’ till everything was all over the place… Haiyo… These juniors should really know how precious food is to those people in Africa… And here you ‘lao’ your Yee-Sang till it flies everywhere..
And there was a few other dishes as well… Such as…
~Chicken (I think) and there was another chicken as well… Didn’t take that photo though~
~Salted cuttlefish vegetables~
~A very big plate of steamed fish~
And also dessert…
Which may explain why I felt underfed, malnourished throughout the night… Seriously, there was too little to eat. I even had to cook some noodles-ala-Alan after reaching back home to satisfy my hunger…
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And as usual, there will be the photographing sessions
By which… I’ll always take photos of people and people of me (Unfortunately those who take photos of me with my camera don’t really understand how to operate the camera until all the shots are quite blurred)
Some of the better ones…
~My second year buddy –Michelle ~
~With HuiKee~
~Photo of a junior with all other post-grad seniors~
~And with NanaLana (I totally have no idea what she was posing as)~
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Erm, the best thing of night will have to be the K-session I guess, since that’s the only source of entertainment we have after the 1st year dance and punishment session…
Well… Some were good at it… Some were not too good… (Hope I belonged in the 1st one… If I’m one of the latter one… Then blame it on Elaine for pulling me to sing 
)
Will upload the videos soon
All-in-all, it was a good different night for me compared to the time I spent in my room after work… I enjoyed it to a certain extent… Thanks for inviting me… But please make it cheaper next time…
Malacca Trip 2008
I managed to go to Malacca during the Christmas holidays… Went on Christmas morning and back at night the next day… Quite a short trip but still a trip is a trip…
So gotta enjoy it
Anyway… It was only me and CharYong visiting Mitsuki-cyan at Malacca… (Note that I’m not using the phrase Chibi-cyan anymore… Even though she’s still a chibi size… But her looks is really very matured already… Can electrify guys )
Straight after arriving at Malacca after a 2 hours bus ride, the first thing we did… Was to have lunch…
And so Mitsuki brought us to this road side mamak stall… I think its nearby a chinese temple with a book fair…
And we ordered two dishes… The… Mee Rojak and also Mee Rebus…
and
I’m not sure which dish is which though… I just remembered it was the tastiest Mee Rebus and Mee Rojak I had in a very very long time… Absolutely delicious..
It was also spicy too… Making me feel so filled with my sweats dripping off my head… But then… This sort of sensation is the best while eating
And then we went to eat something else… Satay…
~Xiang Ji as in… Nice scent chicken???~
The stall we went to was near Jonkers Walk and honestly speaking the satay wasn’t the best I’d before… But Mitsuki thought differently…
While me and CharYong had just a few… Mitsuki literally cleaned the plate up…
~The satays CharYong had…~
and then
~The satay I had…~
is really incomparable to the ones Mitsuki gobbled up…
~She had twice or three times more the amount we had~
~Mitsuki enjoying her satay~
And we proceeded to Jonkers Walk… To see Malaysia’s largest pineapple tart…
I’m a fan of pineapple tarts but the size of this one really creeps me out…
Instead the ones they were making inside looks a lot better … The pineapples are lining up to get into my mouth
Malacca is also a World Heritage site…
Why??
Because we have uncles singing KTV in restaurants… Surely you don’t see something like this everyday… Just a joke ya:P
~Got pose somemore…~
Apparently you can also join in the KTV session…
But you will have to pay…
We also had one of the best ABC I had in a while… Its in a shop along the walk… Sorry… Didn’t really get down the name…
After the trip to Jonkers, I finally had a chance to see where I was staying at… As much as I would like to stay at Mitsuki cyan’s house… She didn’t allow me to stay a night because she wanted to prevent unwanted incidents she didn’t want a guy over… Haha…
So I ended up checking into Fairway Hotel…
A look at the outside… It really looks quite old…
Inside was still quite acceptable..
The only bad thing I could think about was that….
Mitsuki told them to keep a standard one bed room for me… But when I checked in they mentioned that the standard rooms are full… Come on lar… Whats the point of booking and paying deposit beforehand only to find out that your room has been taken when you arrived… So in the end I had to settle with a room RM10 more expensive… But with a deluxe size bed…
~The bed… And I’m not naked while taking this photo if that’s what you are wondering~
The beds was nice… Comfy and didn’t really had any stains or bad scent… I even spend half a night sleeping without a shirt on (Because it rained and my shirt got too soaked to sleep in…)
~There was also a TV with some Astro channels on it… Not bad… I managed to watch a movie also~
and then there was the bathroom…
~Not shiny and too clean but acceptable… Got hot shower some more…~
Its actually not that bad…
RM60 for a night… For a two-person’s bed…. But since I’m staying alone, I had to make full payment…
After resting quite a bit, we went out for dinner… Makan again…
This time to the famous Malacca satay celup…
It’s really famous ler… People lining up next to your table to make sure you eat after and drink faster and then hope you leave faster so they can sit down and have their turn…
~But we took our time savoring the food~
Later on, while the girls go on a shopping trip by a roadside boutique, I wondered off alone and stumbled upon St Theresa church…
It was really decorated nicely… The only bad thing was that the lights were not fully on and there was no mass… Make me feel a bit emo… Visiting a church on Christmas night on my own…
I didn’t know what I was feeling lar… Just really feeling quite emo at that moment… Christmas time… And me… I guess its usual for me to be sentimental during Christmas season
After the girls finally finish their shopping, Mitsuki bring us to the Portuguese settlement… Which was really crowded with people and decorations during the Christmas season…
The houses are decorated with all sorts of decorations
It would have been a very nice walk down the settlement areas… Except is was really too crowded… Not my way of spending Christmas… And it made me wonder some more… Why do people decorate their houses to such extent during Christmas season… And this is some more the Portuguese settlement… Made me wonder how Christmas seemed to have been commercialize nowadays… What does Christmas mean to each and everyone of us? Is it the decorations…?
And I thought again… About how different celebrating Christmas would be like during the real settlement times back in the 18th century…
And it got me emo some more… I haven’t the slightest idea why I was feeling in such a way…
But it really was crowded… Sort of made me think that the Christmas mood was quite dampened.
The next destination for the night is The Jetty…
The Jetty is a newly opened multi purpose area where family, couples and teenagers could gather at… There were snooker centers, pubs, cyber cafes, clubs etc along the structure which was built leading out to the sea… There was even a small transportation car to bring you from one end to the other… And the other end was where we went… It was a small cafe at the end of the Jetty, and there sitting under the open sky and looking at the lights of the city… I felt really calm and relax.. Every breeze from the sea seems to be blowing my worries and troubles away and I felt I could stay there forever talking with the two friends of mine…
The place is simply… Amazing…
And I felt emo again which listening to the other two talking about what had happened so far after we graduated… It seems that after graduation, times like these are really hard to come by… Maybe that was why I told them I felt that everything happened too fast… Perhaps… I just felt that we all graduated too fast… We should have more time to enjoy our lives as coursemates…
How I wish we got more moments like these…
And we talked at the cafe till about 2am before going back and have a rest…
Mitsuki-cyan have to work the next day so me and CharYong had time to our own to go shopping and do what we wanna do… And this was what I did… Haha…
~I’ma chi-wah-wah~
The shops opened quite late so I really wasted some time doing senseless stuffs… Hahaha…
Nothing much to note about for the rest of the day except that I bought quite a number of CNY shirts and also a book which I was looking for… (Might update about it after I finish it) … Once I’m done with the shopping it got even more boring since we had to wait for Mitsuki to finish working and bring us to makan… So I ended up reading another book at MPH…
The book was called ‘An hour to live, an hour to love’
There was a phrase in the book… If you only have an hour to live and can only make one phone call… Who would you call… and what would you say??… And what are you waiting for???
Perhaps if I really wasn’ t that uncertain I would have already made the call by now…Got me thinking again…
Finally after work… Mitsuki brought us to eat at a baba-nyonya stall called Ole Sayang at Melaka Raya
It looks really old from the outside but the inside is a different story
The shop was pretty much filled halfway through our dinner…
And we had a few dishes…
~This is the Chicalok fried egg… Which taste really quite nice but there wasn’t really anything special about it though~
~And then we had the sambal sotong which was also a normal sights at every other place… It tasted quite ok also…~
~Some belacan’s fried vegetable… Which I ate more since I wanna get rid of my oily diet…~
~And this was the best dish of the night… Its suppose to be Asam Fish… Which we gobbled up once it arrived and leave not even the bones left in the bowl… It had a strong sour taste which really opened up our appetite…Delicious~
And that happened to be our last dinner in Malacca…
After that, Mitsuki bring us to the bus station where we boarded our bus back to KL…
~Really would like to thank this girl for the hospitality she gave us in Malacca~
So I played around with her photos a bit after I got back and walah…
~A nicer photo of you ~
And we have some more black and white photos of the two girls…
~This is Mitsuki… The working lady~
and
~This is CharYong.. The hip-hop girl… Hahaha…~
Will be missing you girls
Cameron Trip (Nov ‘08)
I visited Cameron once more last weekend. This time to visit the places I missed out during my first visit there during the CSSUPM Annual Camp back in September.
I went with a few of my lab-mates this time and the trip was a 3 days,2 night trip.
Introducing: my lab-mates
~Left to right: PeyYee, CheeHong, Cystale, Darren, JinPing (not my lab-mate)~
Day 1:
We used the Sg Pulai way up the Highlands which was a far better journey uphill if compared with the first trip up using the Tapah road. We sang to the music in CheeHong’s car while travelling up the hills. I guessed it must have been that which helped me to prevent my dizziness on the journey up-hill.
The weather wasn’t really good though during the journey up-hill as drizzling rain seemed to come and go.
~Rain rain… Go away~
~This may happen to you if you speed on the highlands…Lucky the car didn’t skid on the other side of the mountain… by which the fall will certainly be a long… And possibly fatal one…~
~One of the better hotels there – Equatorial hotel~
But since it was the holiday season and most of the hotels were full, we only to manage to find room at a small hotel in Brinchang town…
~The view from the hotel~
And by small I really mean that its small
~This is Chua Gin Hotel in Brinchang town~
~Its so small that the T.V. is small~
It was amazing that all 6 of us could fit into this room…
We arrived late in the evening and the first thing to find was dinner… There was quite a number of steamboat stalls just below where we stayed at… And we opt for a newly opened one… Called Restaurant Mountain House.
Apparently it was too newly opened that it didn’t really have enough staff and we ended up have to self service on certain chores which include topping up the soup base and also to get new plates from the nearby shelves.
The steamboat there also seemed to be so-so only…
~The usual eggs and noodles~
~The bulk of vegetables~
~Even more vegetables~
~The double soup base~
~The plate of meat and seafood was quite ‘small’ IMHO~
I didn’t managed to go and did a survey on the better areas to eat at before going there so we ended up in this place… Do read up on the other reviews which could be found online to find better food.
We went for a short walk around the hotel area after dinner and spotted this signboard… Apparently the show sells ‘organs’
We also managed to visit the Friday and Saturday pasar malam which was just a stone throw away… There were loads of fried food for sales which was ‘ok’… What really got my attention was the strawberry ice-cream on sale there… RM1 for a stick but it was really worth the price…
Along side those items, many of the hawkers also sells fresh vegetables from the highlands at super cheap price…
Another amusing thing I came upon was this…
We were buying food from one of the stalls who accepts the money and keep it in this container box…
~Look closer… It doesn’t really look like a container if you have a closer look… Yup… Its a printer~
There isn’t really any nightlife in Cameron and most of us were tired so we just stayed in the room for the rest of the night, playing…
~Jutawan… The Malaysian version of Monopoly~
Day 2
Following the planning on the first day, we woke up at around 5am
The misty look in the morning…
It was really foggy…
Our destination: The tip of Brinchang mountain…
The height: 6666m above sea level
The reason: To see the sunrise
The things we know beforehand: It will be a tough ride uphill
Before going on the trip, I’ve read about the tough ride uphill… Even though the mountain is one of the few accessible by cars… But going uphill isn’t easy at all… Braving slopes as steep as 45 degrees and moving for 9km along a one way road where a mistake could easily bring you tumbling down the mountain…And we were braving this stunt in the dark some more… This challenge is really not for the inexperienced.
Our journey uphill… And the dark photos I took
~This looks a bit like we were speeding at the mountainside ala Need For Speed style… The road was really only large enough for a car to pass thru at a time at some points~
We had to stop quite a number a time to: Remove large branches from the middle of the road… And to check which road was it to go… There was two fork along the road uphill which we stopped to and got down to look at the signs clearly…
And eventually and thank God at that, we arrived at the peak… A station or some sort… Which we thought was the peak… It wasn’t until a while after arriving that we noticed the symbolic iron tower which many other reviews noted on their hilltop experience.
~The station on the peak of the mountain~
We climbed up the tower, with every step the temperature seemed to have gotten lower… I was really shivering in my sweater…
But once we saw what was awaiting us at the top of the tower… All our chills seemed to have melted away…
Dawn is arriving…
I took a lot of photos here… But most of the photos aren’t really nice… Since after a while the chills came back and I was shivering once more… Couldn’t really hold the camera properly… Can’t even feel what’s in my bag with my bare hands… Note to others… It may be a good idea to bring gloves up with you…
~This looks like where the Monkey King will have reside at~
It was truly mystical being up at the mountain top… Truly amazing… The only downside may be that there was quite a lot of clouds about and that really kinda spoil the sunrise… After a while all we could see was clouds… And the surroundings became misty…
~There was no editing in this photo… This was how misty it was up there… Or is it foggy???~
~The fog/mist made it look kinda scary at times ~
~Really look like somewhere outside Malaysia~
~We could finally see how the roads look like…. We could see how it look like while we were going up since it was dark~
~One particular sign which we missed up on our way uphill was the ‘hon’ sign… Its a good idea to honk before turning a turn where you can’t see the other side… So if there are cars on the other side… They can hear you coming~
~Seems like a scene out of the movies… I felt like Frodo Baggins on his journey to destroy the ONE RING… It won’t surprise me if the Ringwraiths suddenly jump out of the trees or a headless horseman suddenly rode by~
~The sights that we couldn’t see on your journey up~
~Its tea plantation everywhere~
~At times 2 cars can pass side by side~
~Photos of the nearby Sg. Palas tea plantation~
On our way downhill, we stopped by the tea plantation at Sg Palas. The plantation only open at 9am so we lingered at the entrance… Taking shots of almost everything that we can shoot at
~Notice that the plantation does not open on Monday~
~In the dark you might not know which way is which but when you arrived at this fork, to get to the peak, turn left… The right road leads to the plantation.~
~Its so green everywhere~
~Really big and green… And I’m fat…~
~Paparazzi shot from far far away~
~Are those clouds, mist or fog???~
~The mansions up here look like haunted mansions hidden behind the mist/clouds/fog~
~We passed by this Primary School on our way towards the observation point at Sg. Palas~
~The observation point~
~The entrance… Boh Tea Center, Sg Palas~
~When I take the photo it will look like this~
~When I’m not taking the photo it looks like this… Zzz… I guess I better stick with being the photographer and not the model~
~There was a cafe the the observation point… Where you can sit down and enjoy a cup of tea which looking down at the vast tea plantation at the vast Sg Palas Boh tea plantation…~
~The scones here was not that satisfying though~
There was a tour into the factory which process the tea leaves… But there wasn’t really anything to note in there…
~Going downhill~
On the way back to the small hotel… We stopped by the Butterfly farm nearby Equatorial Hotel. There wasn’t really much to be awed at this farm… But we do noticed certain unique organisms…
~The ‘Raja Brooke’… On the hand ya… Not the guy~
~This is NOT a leaf…~
~And this IS a frog~
There are snakes, scorpions, some farm animals, so beetles etc on display… But the farm really wasn’t worth it… And it charges RM5 for entry some more…
After lunch and a short rest at the hotel… We left for the Cactus farm and the Big Strawberry Farm… (The one which I visited before this)
There was really a lot of flowers for me to take shots at..
~Love taking photos of these babies~
There really isn’t any night life in Cameron so we revisited the night market once more after dinner… There was a shop which sells really sweet strawberries so be sure to try to strawberries on display if they allow you to…
We also had dinner at one of the more famous restaurant… I forgot the name though… All I know that its in the town area in front of the Multipurpose hall…
The food there was great… But I love the chili paste the most… Hot and spicy and enough ‘oomph’…
The night passed by with another monopoly game… By which I lost really really unfairly…
Day 3
Everyone woke quite late this morning… Possibly due to the tiredness the night before… Last few stops for this trip will be to have breakfast, then proceed to Kimanis Strawberry farm and then Kea Farm and finally the Ee Fen Gu bee farm.
We had breakfast at a small food stall behind our hotel… Food was so and so… Nothing much different compared with other stalls…
~The view in front of the stall~
We went to Kimanis farm because someone recommended the strawberries there… But it must have been quite a lousy season for the strawberries there since most of the ones I tasted there was sour…
Kea farm is one big farm… With a lot of stalls to visit… Albeit like the pasar malam… Apparently it was too much of a tourist attraction that the road there was jammed up for quite a while… Therefore, if you are interested in visiting Cameron… Don’t visit during the weekends or you’ll find yourself trapped in all sorts of traffic jam…
Ee Fen Gu bee farm was our last stop… We stopped by here to help a senior buy the honey here… Do be aware though, there aren’t really any large sign boards showing where this farm is… But it is a bit further down Kea farm…
I spent quite some time trying to capture the photo of a bee doing its work and followed a particular one for a few minutes before I lost sight of it… And without any photo… Darn…
Another note is that the bee farm is currently undergoing renovations…
My 2nd trip to Cameron doesn’t really have the excitement of my 1st visit but I finally managed to visit some of the popular areas… But still even after my 2nd trip here… Fact remains the same… Cameron is only suitable for those who like to travel around to look at nature etc… And not for those who like to shop… Cuz apart from vegetables, strawberries and a few other items… You can hardly find anything else to buy….
Still… I love the mystical look of the Highlands…
Cyberjaya’s Old Town Coffee and Secret Recipe.
I managed to visit the Old Town Coffee Shop and Secret Recipe shop in Cyberjaya recently.
Old Town Coffee shop can be found nearby the HBSC and Fujitsu company. The exact location should be in Prima Avenue.
I’ve been an avid visitor to Old Town shops all over KL. Sometimes having my breakfast there (My fav: Toasted bread with half boiled egg, topping it off with a glass of Iced Enriched Chocolate and I’ll be feeling in heaven.
~The settings is still the same~
But the same could not be said regarding the Old Town Coffee Shop in Prima Avenue. I ordered a bowl of Prawn Mee while my friend ordered the recently on promotion Hainan Chicken Chop rice. We were halfway through our meals when she decided that she wanted to have my meal instead. So we exchanged what we are eating and luckily we did.
It wasn’t long before I found something in the rice.
~Yup… Something sharp and something which look metal…~
And straight off I stopped eating… Lost my appetite to finish the meal… Not sure the sharp metal thing is fell accidentally there or what… But I complaint regarding it the to the waiters… They are good enough to allow me to have a new plate, by which I changed my mind after a while, a bit worried over what other surprises that may be expecting me with the new plate… (I just lost confidence with eating there)… Imagine if I wasn’t looking at what I was eating and swallowed it… I won’t be something I wanna think about…
In another way, it was lucky that my friend and I did changed what we are eating because I would have doubt that she will noticed it before eating. Thank God everything was ok in the end.
I’m not saying that Old Town ain’t a good shop but… precautions really have to be done towards making sure that incidents like these do not happen again.
On the other hand, since we didn’t really enjoyed the meal we had there, I brought us to the Secret Recipe shop a bit further away. And we really didn’t regret going.
The place was a heaven… I really fell in love with it upon entering the door. The sofas there are so soft and the place is just so relaxed… It was so calm and peaceful there when we arrived (There wasn’t any customers at the moment)… And I felt that I could really sink in my seat and not leave at all… The setting is just great… Truly a place to go to get out from the rushed and busy world outside… It felt like a getaway to someplace out of this world. Bravo Secret Recipe…
~Its just so beautiful :teary eye:… Now I’m being a bit too expressive~
~Indulging in Chocolate Indulgence~
~Fantastic Almond Brownies~
I really enjoyed the place… It help me to relax and think through a lot of things… Eventually helping me to arrived at the answer I was looking for… I wasn’t really feeling too good due to certain things that happened but a few hours of pondering there got me back into shape once more… And the decision I came upon will be hurtful but I guess being hurt is another part of growing up and become stronger…
Now… Perhaps I should bring a date next time with me to the Secret Recipe here
Address to Secret Recipe:
Secret Recipe
Suite 0-7
CBD Perdana
Jalan Perdana
Cyberjaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Thanks LiPeng for bringing me out
Tired, Lost, Discouraged
Recently a lot of things have clouded my mind… I feel tired, lost and discouraged… My whole week was filled with ups and downs… Felt as if a lot of things happened in a short time… Even felt hard to sleep at times… Lost the peace within myself… Lost to the fear within me… Can’t seem to get back the silence within me without my head thinking of things…
The wrong timed visit to South City
It was suppose to be a day for me to study… A day for me to remember what I was taught… But my love to play music got me running the other way… And a friend’s call for help brought me to South City… Thinking of getting a keyboard… And then having lunch… That was the plan… But not only did the South City ToyCity shop closed down… The friend whom I was meeting came with her boyfriend by which I left them two together (Since they seemed to lack quality time together)… Feeling hungry, tired… and a bit depressed… Ate my late lunch and started reading… Didn’t really know how much got into my head…
The day I strived for my paper and realizing the truth of something
I got myself into the mood I had for the paper… But on the same morning… I learned of something from a good friend that made me numb once more… How do you understand what you feel…? That was the dilemma within me… I got a deadline for the thing I had to do… But the deadline is coming soon… And I wasn’t prepared… Knowing the truth got my mind occupied even though I was suppose to study…
~While your head is occupied with matters till the point where you felt lost… Even view such as this feels unimportant.~
The day I had my paper… And realized that I didn’t really understand
I sat there looking at the paper… Some answer I could… Some I couldn’t… It was cold… And I was tired… I got through it without thinking much… But didn’t managed to finished the questions… And then I look back… What did I really understand from the whole thing…? I didn’t think so… What have I been doing then… The thought still lingers in my head.
The night when we celebrated birthday… Being Alan…
The birthday was supposed to be cancelled at one point but someone brought it alive again… Thanks to her… And the place of meet seemed to be a bit desolated… And noone seemed to know where it is… Everyone didn’t managed to get there without asking where it was… And being Alan… I did another thing which I think was quite ordinary this time… Made a special gift for the birthday girl…
~Happy Birthday~
~The place we had the celebration… Gasoline, Mines… Yup there is one opened there… Its just hard to find…~
The trip to Jusco Balakong and the accident there
Rammed into the automated gate for Jusco Balakong… Miraculously, the glass didn’t break… The brake of the car didn’t seemed to function at the time… And we hit the gate… Going under it… Thinking negatively… The gate may be costing a lot… And all of us shooked up… Noone really had the mood for anything else… But thinking positively… I guess we must all thanked God that we noticed the brake wasn’t functioning and only hit the gate… And not realizing it while speeding on the highway and then finding out the brake wasn’t working… And thanked God some more that the brake didn’t really work while we hit it… Or the inertia might have caused the windshield to break hurting all of us…
The day when things got really busy and the night when I talked my heart out to a friend.
Considering the week I’ve been through, there was a day when I was busy the whole day… Running in and out of the lab… From the time I arrived till the time I actually ended everything… Around 6.30pm… It was tiring… But then… Thats what I’m supposed to do… Met up with a friend that night that cleared a lot of doubts from my mind… Really appreciate her support and care and advice… It made my mind clearer as to what had to be done… But clear things never seemed to last…
The day when I got scolded by my co-supervisor…
Made a big mistake recently… Scolded by my co-supervisor… He scrapped off an essential component of my project… I can see he’s really frustfrated at me… Really sorry… I didn’t know… And that got me thinking again… Did I choose the correct way?
The day we had lunch… And the night I learned something else…
I really treasured the times we had lunch… And you should understand that I called you out for lunch for a reason… I wondered if you have noticed it… Or you’re just feeling that it’s a friend calling… I hadn’t done much… And at the moment I couldn’t do much… And I did what I thought I could do… There is a reason behind all the things I’ve done…
And then the night I learned something else… That what I did may not be successful this time… The deadline is almost up… And I understand that I’m not going to make it… I couldn’t sleep that night… Felt bad deep down…
Looking at the cross
I looked up upon the cross during the mass at chapel, trying to find the peace within me… The peace that I thought I had lost… I still couldn’t find it… I still felt my life is in a mess… Sorry to those who asked we what was wrong but I couldn’t answer… There’s just too many things I felt that I couldn’t share out with others yet… Perhaps its cuz of fear of breaking down in front of them… And fear once more… Why am I fearful…? If I was brave enough… Could I have changed the things that happened?
I hope I can find my way soon…
