Steamboat Party on behalf of Chinini - Happy Birthday Sis!

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Cameron Highlands Pictures :P

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Cameron Highlands

After 22 years, I finally went back up to Cameron Higlands. This time we drove up with my car on the second day of Raya. The roads were kinda windy and narrow, took us about 5 hours to get up there. We took the road up from Tapah. Left around 10 am, traffic was ok. We did stop by Bidor for lunch, had the famous "ap tui mien" (herbal duck noodle soup).

There are altogether 3 small towns up in Cameron, Ringlet, Tanah Rata and Brinchang. We stayed at Bala's Chalet in Tanah Rata. This place used to be a boarding school in the late 1930's. Now's the have turned it into a B&B. Very nice place and very cosy and serene too. We got a quiet suite up the hill for RM280. Check out the website if any of you want to have a great time in Cameron's should not miss checking out Bala's Chalet. (www.balaschalet.com) After checking in, it started to poured quite heavily. After the rain we adjourned over the the tea room for some tea and scones. Quite pricy but it was worthwhile. The scones were very different and so was the apple pie. Yummy! Dinner time, we head on over to Brinchang for steamboat at You Hoo Restaurant. RM15 pax lots of vege and great weather to eat steamboat. After dinner we decided to talk a slow walk at the "pasar malam" near by. We met my friend Richard who sells Raw and Wild honey at the pasar malam. He has a stall there and we were told that he supplies slabs of honey comb bee wax to hotels in KL. Yummy stuff especially the darker color honey.

We only stayed one night at Bala's (enjoyed watching HBO ). The next day we checked into Century Pines Resort just a few minutes down from Bala's. Typical hotel, very new and big spacious room. Per night RM198++

After checking out from Bala's we head on over to the Boh Tea plantation in Sg. Palas. We were quite lucky to get there early, as later they closed it to visitor to do some cleaning up from last night landslide. It was raining the whole night. Roads leading to the plantation were very narrow, muddy and windy. We got a tour of the plantation and factory, also not forgetting having tea and scones again for breakfast at the cafe there which overlooks the plantation. Next we drove up higher to Gunung Brinchang were there's also a strawberry farm. We got to pluck them and take them home for a small price. Not very sweet as they are still tiny. Bigger ones are much more juicy and sweeter.

Next head back to the hotel to check in and also freshen up. Had lunch at T-Cafe quite yummy food. In the evening, we decided to do some hiking to the waterfalls. The walking path was just next to our hotel, the walked took us like 15 mins. We were quite dissapointed to see the condition of the Parit Waterfalls. There's so much rubbish in the river plus the water is chocolate brown. So muddy and dirty. I'm quite sad that the people here dont really care about perserving the environment and also the touristy places.

Dinner time back to town in Tanah Rata, we ate at HongKong restaurant ordered dishes instead of steamboat. The food here also not too bad. After dinner we went back to the pasar malam again coz Victoria wanted some strawberry juice. We also bought cactus and flowers to bring back. On the way back, Phil was curious to try Marybrown Chicken so we decided to stop by and tapau some back to the room. Not as yummy as KFC.

Last day, woke up early had breakfast at the coffee house. The we decided to check out the Kampung Orang Asli. It was very dissapointing again as it was just like any other kampung. I see alot back in KL especially near my apt. Took us only 5 mins to check out the place.

Next we drove up near Equatorial Hotel to the KEA Farm to buy from vege and fresh strawberries. Got a huge bag of vege for only RM 30 quite a good deal. We also got more cactus plant. Then we also visited the Chinese Temple there. Later we went back to the hotel showered and check out at 12.30. We then drove down the the Cameron Valley Bharrat Tea Plantations for lunch. We had sandwiches, tea and more scones :P On the way down there was another Boh Tea Farm, so we decided to check that out too. We spent quite sometime there. We also hiked up all the way to the top of the hill. The view was magnificient. Also got to checked out the factory and bought more tea. This time rolled palas tea leaf.

Time to head back to KL took us over 3 hours to get down and back into town. Traffic was getting a bit heavier. On the way down, we stop by Lata Iskandar Waterfall. Very nice huge waterfalls much cleaner than the ones up in Cameron.

So that's our short holiday trip. Next year Visit Malaysia Year 2007. Hope to see more parts of our beautiful country.

My Little Sis - Victoria's B'day

We had dinner at Rakuzen. Thanked God we made reservations as it was quite packed. Both Philip and I arrived late but made it on good time. We got her a Pink Collar Piglet Shirt from Giordarno and a "The Wild" DVD. Lyweoi got her a pig torchlight. We order so many types of sushi and food by the end of it we were all stuff. As usual Mom and QL love the wasabi and knock themselves out eating it.

Will post the video once I edit it...on youtube :P

But here are the pictures from the dinner. Enjoy!

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Flower Power

My mom's lotus plant....decided to take some shots of it. Looks great or not?

Mooncake Festival

This year mooncake festival was kinda fun. My family members came over to my place and turn my balcony into a candle fantasy land. We did have some mishaps. Some lanterns were sacrifice and burned to the ground. :P The cleaning up in the morning was a pain...lots of scrapping but washing to do. But got it under control.

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My Birthday 18th September 2006

My hunny got me a really nice pearl necklace :) He said this year I naughty so no present but he lied. Hehehe...me like the necklace. Nice or not?!

We then went to Chilis to eat dinner and embarassed me in front of everyone :P I got free brownie and ice-cream for dessert. Yeah!!!

BBQ B'day Pool Party

Woohooo!!! Party! Party! Party!

How do I begin? Last minute decided to throw a bbq party on my 31st b'day. So made a guestlist and shopping list of stuff to get. Email friends to come for the b'day bash. Mom started to get worried not enough food and also afraid that it may pour down hard. Lately the weather here has been quite eratic...lots of rain in the Klang Valley. So order some tables and chairs.

Started to get the stuff on Fri and Sat. Spent the whole Sunday morning preparing and cooking the food to cater for over40 pax. Got hotdogs, burger (apparently not enough for everyone - didn't know it was so popular), satay, chicken wings, lamb, fried bee hoon, coleslaw, corn, potato jacks, jelly, marshmallows, cake and watermelon. Not too sure if everyone like the food or not. But all the food was gone. No leftovers which is good except for the corn and potatoes.


Mom was so worried they couldn't get the fire to start. Philip was trying and finally managed to get it up with Suresh help. Both we the cooks of the evening. It was hard trying to get the fire up as it was so windy and started to drizzle. But they did...kudos!!! So we started to to get the food rolling. The marshmallows and burgers were a hit! Next time must buy more of those and less meat.Kept praying for it to rain the afternoon around 3.30 which I was very happy. Thought it was done raining but it continue on with baby rain through the whole evening. We placed some dried chili around the area, suppossedly to keep the rain away. It work alright to keep it from pouring heavily but not good enough as it was still drizzling. Next time got to put it earlier around the pool area. You can see from the pic that we didn't have a cover over the top but use umbrellas as shade...innovative right we malaysian.

I got really cool presents too. Got alot of wine from friend (Chan, Francis,Jamie, Ee Ling & Tzu Ming) and got Champagne from Sze wye all think I'm alcoholic :P Pillow cases - Beauty and the Beast (Hisham and Jenny), jewellry (Pearl Necklace from Grace and Angela, Bracelet and Earings from Lee Yen and Rene), book (Life of Pi from Alvin), Purse (Karima), Magic 8 Ball (Suresh and Adila), Vase (Madeliene & Wee Heng), Chocolates (Jin Aun & Wife), musical ball (Ivan) and Scooby mug from (Fiona, Leona and Vicky). Thank you all for the lovely gift. Very very nice and thoughtful of you.

Overall, I had fun. Was great to be able to share this special day with love ones, family and friends. Thank you for not throwing me into the pool in my nice BI dress.

BBQ Pool Party Pictures

My cousins Ivan's Dog - Jacky

Yesterday I went over to my Grandma's House and my cousin got himself a walk-in dog a couple of days ago. He name him Jacky. Silly me I was so terrified of the little puppy. He's however quite docile, don't bark and quite playful. Later Jacky was making noise, guess he was a bit thirty gave him water, which he drank. But then he started splashing water on himself, weird right so we thought he must be hot and decided to give him a shower. hehe first time ivan has a pet and also taking responsibility of it.

Care Bears :)

My all time favorite cartoon...saw pictures of them at my sis blog and it reminded so much of my childhood. Remember those days, watching them cartoons. Now the theme song is stuck in my head. Can't seem to get it out. hahahaha and trying to name all them bears...but I finally got them right. Here goes!

Tender Heart Bear

Funshine Bear

Good Luck Bear

Grumpy Bear

Wish Bear

Love-a-lot Bear

Cheer Bear

Friend Bear
Bedtime Bear

Share Bear

Amanda N Steve Setera's Wedding Sept 2, 2006

The wedding dinner was held at Top Hats on Jln Kia Peng. Nice little restaurant plus after the dinner...performance by a live jazz band. We all had fun at the wedding. I was very blessed and honoured to be sitting at the same table as the Lamas. Also, first time having a vegetarian fine dinning dinner.

Here are some of the wedding photo's taken at the wedding. Enjoy!

Chief Rev K. Sri Dhammananda

After our Karaoke Session got a message from Alvin that Chief Rev has passed away peacefully at SJMC at 12.42pm. The first thing that came to mind is that he no longer has to suffer. Free from suffering and the good thing is that he choosed a good day to leaves us too. 31st August 2006 - MERDEKA DAY!

Rev Dhammananda was born on March 18, 1919, in southern Sri Lanka. He came to Malaya on Jan 2, 1952, to administer to the needs of the Buddhist community here. I feel very blessed that I had a chance to learn buddhist teaching from him even though it was only for 3 years. He has thought us so much about the Dhamma and the Buddhist way of life. Even though I call myself a Buddhist but I don't really know what it means to be a Buddhist. His teaching has tought me to practise more loving kindness, patience and understanding of Buddhism. Will definately miss his Dhamma Talks on Fridays, we managed to catch his last talk couple of months back which was really touching and inspriring too.

Yesterday after our dinner, we stop by the Mahavihara Temple in Brickfields to pay our last respect to the Chief. May he rest in peace and may he be well and happy.

Karaoke Merdeka Celebration

Since Tracy is back here on holiday...we decided to go on a Karaoke Trip. QL, Tracy, PL and I went. We had a blast singing our hearts out. We went during the K-Lunch special. Quite affordable RM12.00 from 11am-2pm. Its cool cause you get food and the best of all sing sing sing. Sang English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese Songs. We put in so many songs that we were unable to sing them all, we had almost 30 songs left on cue but sad to say they turned it off "nomoreadi".

After our Karaoke Session, we head on back over to my place where we swam in the pool till it rained on us. We did some aqua aerobics that's was quite fun. Then dinner at Fukuru in Desa Petaling. PL says I ate so much and ate like a babi hutan. Hehehe me and food :) yummy yummy yummy

TNB Substation "Pow Cha" at Pantai

Woke up was trying to check email and update blog. At around 9am suddenly black out no electricity. I thought it was strange but didn't bother much about it. Was getting ready to go Karaoke with QL and Tracy. As we were leaving the apartment. The neighbour told us that the sub station next to the carpark exploded and caught fire. Would take some time to mend before we got electricity back. Scarry man. Smoke everyone and a very strong burnt smell coming out from the carpark. All the cars were ok. Fireman and security guards were trying to put the fire and controlling traffic in and out of the area. Should have taken pics of what happen but was rushing out so i didn't.

When we got back later, electricity was restored with mobile gen sets. Thank got for back up gen sets. Don't know how long it would take to repair the damage. I must say that TNB quiet the efficient. And on behalf of all of us here at Pantai...Thank you!
"You light up my life :)"

Happy Merdeka Day!!!

Malaysia is now 49 years old. Yeah!!! Merdeka!!!Merdeka!!! Merdeka!!!

Last night while watching the live telecast of the Merdeka Celebration I was so embarassed and sad. We are supposed to be proud of Malaysia and for what it has acheived but after watching it, it made me more depressed. It really seems like we are moving backwards instead of forward. The performances and shows were not even up to standard, its so sad to see what Malaysia has sucome too. I did however get to see loads of fireworks from parts of Klang Valley from my apartment, especially from Genting Highlands.

I really love this country, the food is the best...can't help it but I'm a big food lover, love to eat. Then the unity, peace and harmony of this country. I believe that we can be a better nation and we have great potential to world class but lots needs to be done. No matter what, I still have hope that we will continue to grow and better developed nation.

Afternoon Tea at Delicious

I had tea with my friend Chan at Delicious. He got me a nice gift...chocolates. Nicely wrap in a box so sweet. We had Lemon Meringue Pie, Scones, Coffee and Tea. It's really nice to be appreciated by friends. Life is short, so we need to enjoy the little things in life more and cherish all our loves ones and friends.

Phuket Island - Family Trip 2006

Last minute trip to Phuket even though it was raining most of the time turn out to be a fun trip. First time flying out of the new low cost airport by air asia, looks kinda like a big warehouse or gudang. Surprisingly we didn't have much delay only 15 mins. We all had nasi lemak on the plane...RM 12.00 per box (nasi lemak, tea and free kit kat). By the time we got into Phuket it was evening. After checking into the hotel in Allamanda Phuket Laguna, we went not island hoping but hotel hoping around the resort. Seeing that we were in Thailand, we all wanted to eat authentic Thai Cuisine and ended up at Ruen Thai in Dusit Laguna for dinner. In this resort, there's many hotels and one of the best one was Banyan Tree Phuket. Lovely decor, very zenish reminds me of Datai in Langkawi. I like Dusit the best...nice beach front.

The next morning, after the rain we hop onto to the free shuttle and headed onto Laguna Beach. Only got to spend 15 mins on the beach before the storm came in and we got more rain. Next we decided to rent a car to see the Phuket, I've been here before but that was like 10 years ago. I guess alot has changed since then. We got a VIOS and I drove while Leona navigated. We stop at Tesco to buy some grocery for breakfast and then had lunch there. Next we went to the mall called Central Festival. Huge mall probably like 1 Utama minus new wing. Next we went to Wat Chalong the famous temple there. The most strking thing is that they were putting firecrackers into this little hut, offering by devotees. So QL, got one small one for 30 baht and it was cool. The atmosphere plus the smell of firecrackers really reminded us of chinese new year and how much we miss the them.

It was really nice to drive around the island, we passed by Kata Beach, Patong (Tsunami Area) now all newly rebuild. Looks alot like Gurney Drive in Penang, beach also looks the same and the shops reminds me so much of Petaling Street. Cheaper in KL everything here so expensive. While driving up to Kamala beach, pass by the Tsunami Monument Burial Ground.

Had dinner at Pan Yaah, another seafood place...lovely food too. We all love fell in love with the Tom Yam Soup. Vicky who didnt like Thai food was enjoying her dinner.
I think the best attraction of our trip was the trip to Phuket Fantasea. Mini Disneyland plus Las Vegas Shows. Got there at 7.15pm collected out tickets and proceed inside this fantasy land. Shops all around selling souvenirs and gifts. There also elephant ride and feeding the elephants too. I was so scared but managed to go close and feed them bananas and sugar canes. Show started at 9pm before that we all had to surrender our cameras and phones before entering the main theater. The show was FANTASTICO!!! Really had a wonderful time.

The next day, still rainin so our plans to go to the beach was very much out of the question. So we decided to head back to Patong, this time to get some Thai Massage and do some shopping before we leave.

We checked out at 2 pm and our taxi driver came to take us to the airport. Arrived back home safely at 6.15 pm. We all had fun, next year got to plan and see where we'llo go off too next.

My New Laptop - M5N Asus Notebook

After a research and contemplation plus looking high and low at low yatt plaze on sunday, I've decided to get the M5N Asus Notebook. It's pearl white in color like the ibook. Great features: 1GB DDR2 RAM, 60 GB HDD, DVD Rewritable Drive, 1.55KG, 12.1in TFT, WIFI plus card reader. Standard features. The thing I like about it is white in color, small, compact and light.

The frustrating this is that I planned to get it during the PC Fair but was not able to do so. So when right after that to Low yatt the following week, no stock so weird. The whole of low yatt dont have so upsetting. The next day my good friend Suresh called me to notify me that Low yatt is having a notebook sale starting on Mon till end of the month and the notebook that I was eyeing on is on sale. Guess where??? Low yatt of course. Man this time, rush down to town got and came back home. Got a really good deal on it too. Am really happy to have gotten it at last.

James & Dai's Wedding 12-8-06

A week after their wedding in San Jose, my good buddy James is back here to throw his Malaysian style wedding. I can't believe that he's "married" now. But I'm really happy for the both of them. They are such a compatible and lovely couple. May you guys grow old and happy together. Am really looking forward to seeing the new addition soon to the list. Dinner was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in town (Old KL Hilton), 30th floor...all the way on the top. Food was great. We all had a splendid time. Was great to meet up with Yin Min who came all the way from Belfast to attend the wedding. Haven't seen him for such a long time, I hardly recognize him. Here are some of the pictures taken at the wedding dinner. Enjoy!

Colourful sunset

Today outside my mom's house, the sky was very colourful. Have not really seen good sunsets in town only in near the beaches. But today's one was really nice.

My attempt at flower arrangements

Hehehe Philip bought flowers for me :) But they were all raw roses. I had to de-thorn them and try my bit at flower arranging. Not too for my first attempt. Whatcha think?