Friday 8 January 2016

Holy cow I thought I lost this blog years ago... Just shows how the internet never forgets anything.

Well enough talking to myself. I'm gonna go and re-read my old posts and go down memory lane.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Janda Baik

Hi again guys. Sorry for being slow on the updates. On Sunday mum and I went to Janda Baik, a secluded mountainous area outside of KL. Mum's grand uncle and aunt (whom for the sake of ease we both called uncle Mah and aunt Suzy) own an estate up in the mountains about 2000ft above sea level, surrounded by jungle bush. The photos of this trip will be posted at a later time as they are in mum's camera which had just recently died. Their place was AMAZING, felt like we were in a resort. SFalling asleep to the sound of a mountain stream and jungle bugs was quite relaxing, except there were huge cicaks (geckos) which freaked my mum and I out.  To get there we had to pass a couple of guarded checkpoints because the area was a place for rich folks; winding roads, crapload of monkeys everywhere an a couple or pressure changes as we ascended up the mountain. Uncle Mah and Aunt Suzy own their own insurance company and Uncle Mah is a retired Malaysian army captain so they're respected folk in the area. Felt pretty cool that wherever we go in their car guards would salute us. Alas there was no internet in the area hence my lack of updates.

On the second day we went to Genting, a renowned hotel/themepark/casino place that was ON THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN. We had to take a 15 minute cable car ride, which nearly made me shat my pants as I am petrified of heights. The fact that it was the tallest and longest cable car system in all of Asia did little to impress me, unless making a big guy whimper like a pup counts as impressing someone... When we finally reached the top it took all my willpower to not drop on the floor and kiss the ground. We had a quick look around the shopping mall (did I forget to mention we're on the top of a mountain?) Uncle Mah took us to the casino. Now here's the thing, being a five star locale, security was tight; and the legal age to gamble is 21. Malays are also forbidden from gambling. It is this latter fact that got me sweating as I apparently look Malay, and if I was asked to show my ID eg passport, they will know I'm under age. Walking through the casino doors while guards stare at you considering whether to check up on me was scarier than going through airport security. But we got through fine, fortunately. Mum went with aunt Suzy one way while uncle Mah took me to the slot machines. He and I burned about RM150 on those darn things (yes, I was playing them too, with HIS money I might add) but to him it was no big deal. We hung around there for half a day before finally calling it quits. Before we went back onto the cursed cable cars for the trip back down I noticed a pretty decent jacket on sale that was my size (a miracle, I assure you.) that was 70% off which brought the price tag down to a ridiculously cheap amount. Snapping that up we boarded the "hanging coffins of doom" to slowly and painfully descend  down the side of the mountain. We got home and the rest of the day was a pretty relaxed and uneventful day.

And that leads us to today. This afternoon I went to Central Market in KL, a place FILLED with shops full of cultural stuff and such. Managed to get myself some cool cultural doohickeys and such. What pisses me off is NZ's banal laws regarding wood products. Most of the unique and interesting stuff on sale here are made of wood which just twists my heart in agony since I know I can't afford to pay 6o-70 NZD PER ITEM that I want to be able to get into the country. Sorry folks, I'm afraid any souvenir I bring back for you guys will not exactly be the one I really wanted to get you :( I just hope I can bring back all the stuff we've bought over the weeks. Still got a 2 week trip to Jakarta ahead of us.

Sorry to end this post on a downer but hopefully the next update will be abit more cheery.

See you on the flippity-flip.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

So I'm sick...

Spending the day just bumming around the house so I thought, why not post a new update?

So the past few days have been yet more travelling and feasting. Had an all you can eat dim sum for breakfast. It was pretty cray how much there was:




Twas delicious.

We also celebrated Uncle Hasan's birthday which was pretty neat. Got to meet his friends most of whom were very friendly. One of them is the nephew of Malaysia's most prominent former Prime Minister, Mahatir. And a couple of them are Datuks (something similar to people who received knighthoods, except by a state sultan instead of Queen Elizabeth) all of them were very down to earth and pleasant people. Once dad was handed a guitar and asked to sing the night became a looong as sing-along session. Everyone had a good time :)

Also I got my hands on mum's camera and found pics, some with me in it for once. Here's a few:

Me and my uncle Hafiz. He's 18, I'm 20 :)

Us on the LRT, the monorail system in KL.


Aunt Anne's PRETZELS! Flippin good stuff.




I can't really think of anything to write to be honest. My head is kinda hurting and I wanna rest.

Missing you guys :)




Sunday 29 January 2012

Delayed post yet again.

Hello again folks. I actually had an update ready to post two days ago but shit happened and I lost it.
So here's the abbreviated version minus the complaints and downbuzziness in the latter section. First of all, we went to this nice as Balinese restaurant with beautiful decor and ambience, the food was near perfect too:











The last pic above is of the 4 man band that hopped from one table to another to serenade people with songs. And yes, they do requests. Played a mean Santana tune. 

I went to Melaka over the weekend , a two hour trip south of KL to my grandad's hometown. The place was HOT, far hotter than KL. 38-39 degrees C to be precise. Here be more pics, hopefully with references:

Why this photo? Look closer.

It's a KFC built into a bridge over a highway.

KFC IN A FRIKKING BRIDGE!




Open street markets:






Old historical church from Dutch colonial times.




A dragon thing that spiraled around this square.


Chicken rice balls and more:










Satay celup!



Two lion dancers visited the restaurant.



The night markets and the CNY lanterns all over the streets.





That['ll be all from me for now. Adios!