Zee Avi - Malaysian songwriter/singer new album (May 09)

Had been listening to 'Bitter Heart' by Zee Avi, Miri-born girl from youtube.
Got famous from youtube and headed to LA, USA to cut her 1st album.
Check her up at
www.zeeavi.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdXDgaEgaJ8

Nice catchy song and below is the lyric:

Sun rays come down as seen when they hit the ground,
Children spinning around till they fall down down down.
I wait for you: it's been two hours now,
You're still somewhere in town,
Your dinners getting cold.
I rest my case you are always this late,
And you know how much I hate waiting around 'round 'round,
Bitter heart, bitter heart tries to keep it all inside,
Bitter heart, bitter heart shadows will help you try to hide,
Bitter heart, my bitter heart is gettin' just a little fragile,
Bitter heart, bitter heart of mine.
And then you come and tell me the same reason as you did yesterday,
So tell me whats her name.
Doo doo da dum, doo doo da dum, doo doo doo doo doo doo da da dum dum, da da da da dum, da da da da dum, da da da da dum.
Bitter heart, bitter heart tries to keep it all inside
Bitter heart, bitter heart shadows will help you try to hide,
Bitter heart, my bitter heart is just getting a little fragile,
Bitter heart, bitter heart of mine, of mine, of mine, of mine, of mine, of mine.

Email from Philly to kids dated 28 March 2005

Hello kids and dearest

Have a nice long weekends break b'cos of Easter
Holiday here, ie have Friday off.

On Friday, went to Philly Museum of Arts. B'cos my
company donated a lot of money to this Museum, I get
to go in for free by showing my company card with
photo (just had this b'cos I need this pass to go into
my US office). If not, have to pay USD 10 per
entrance. Saw a lot of famous paintings and scultures
inside the museum. Will show you some photos when I've
free time to upload.

Yesterday, took a 1.5 hours bus ride to New York, the
most famous city in the world. The bus fare (return)
costs me USD 20. Alighted at Chinatown and then,
walked to Twin Towers site where back in September 11,
2001 two terrorists planes crashed into it and a lot
of people died and the towers were destroyed. There
are still people putting flowers up as remembrance to
those who died during this incident. Underneath, there
are still train stations running which had been fixed.
Walked to Wall Street where NYSE is located.
Then, went to the Pier (ferry jetty) at South Street.
Had cuban lunch there. Visited some shops but very
expensive products.

And walked along Broadway up north back to Chinatown.
There were so many people and shops in Chinatown, and
they are selling a lot of products that are similar to
those sold in Shanghai. Bought 5 NY picture t-shirts
for usd 10.

At Union Square, there was open market selling fruits,
flowers and food. Dogs there were wearing T-shirt or
woolen jumper as weather is still cold and it was
windy. Saw a lot of squirrels on the park there. Took
a subway (underground train) to Central Park.
Walkabout there and then, to Times Square. Took a
subway train back to Chinatown. Halfway, the train was
hold up at one of the station, and annoucement
mentioned, the police was investigating and I suspect
someone might call up and said there is bomb etc. The
city is now might cautious after September 11.

At Chinatown, had Chinese dinner. Then, took the bus
back to Philly. The bus was delayed due to faulty door
and managed to arrive back in Philly at around 10:30
pm. Was very tired as had walked a lot in NY City but
it was a nice trip as the city is so lively with so
many shops, attractions and people.

Tomorrow will be back to busy work again.

More photos on Philly and New York can be found at
http://community.webshots.com/user/t8looi1

Bye for now and luaa.
Dad

email to kids dated 25 March, 2005 from Philly

hello kids

more stories for u all:

last weekends, dad went to reading terminal market
where the old movie 'Witness' was filmed (harrison
ford) with the amish kid. there are still amish people
staying in lancaster a nearby town (they do not use
electricity nor drive cars. their transport is horse
cart but sometimes, they also ride on other people
cars to go to work ie build houses etc). they live
like they're more than 200 years ago, no modern stuff
for them. they just do farming and get paid for
helping to build house. they dressed in black and
white. saw some amish in the market, selling some farm
produce when i went there last weekends. felt like i
am back to 18th century, just looking at them. my
american colleague who stayed near lancaster told me a
funny incident whereby she saw an amish boy riding
rollerblade. haha the temptation of modern toy just
break their mind control!

also dad love to visit benjamin franklin's old house.
there has a good 20 min or so movie on franklin at
franklin court, just 5 minutes walk from Omni Hotel
where I stayed for the first 3 days before moving to
stay in hampton inn which i am staying now. franklin
court is where ben used to live. i will always buy a
stamp at the post office where franklin used to manage
with the special stamp everytime i come over here.
btw, this is free entrance and i went there twice (one
b'cos i have no hotel room to checkin yet so had to go
there to pass time). saw also ben franklin's toilet
which is basically a hole that looks like a well,
where he did his berak (passed his motion). do u know
the lightning arrestor rod was invented by franklin?
he was also the first person to discover electricity
in lightning when he flown a kite with a key during a
rainy day and the lightning struck the key.
he even invented a music instrument called armonica
using bottles filled with water. he published a lot of
newspaper. he lived in 17th century, around 200 years
ago. he also used to be the postmaster ie in charge of
post office for may areas in the state. he was a great
scientist, a famous politician who managed to get help
from France to fund the war against British government
and finally, USA gets independence from England back
in 1776.

attached are more photos on ben's house, postoffice,
toilet, how his house looks like (the steel skeleton
frame. his actual house had been demolished), his face
(on a stamp) and an amish lady (not taken by me but
taken from web to show how the amish people looks
like.

bye again and be good, dad

Some photos from Philly, dated March 2005

11street - some of the street i walked by on the way
to office.

cityskyline - nearby to my hotel

sunrise at 6 am and set around 6 pm now.
it is good as longer sunlight. this week is already
starts of spring but weather is still cold. some area
nearby to philly still have some snow fall this
morning.

phillysnow - from my hotel room window, looking down
is the car park. the snow is still visible today but
melting slowly.

thall2 - town hall where the william penn's statue is
located on top. william is the founder of philly.

townhall1 - there is william penn statue. they are
doing painting now on this statue and the tower.

hroom - ny hotel room. left is the TV cabinet. right
is the bed. front is the aircond or heater on the
floor. toilet and dress cabinet are behind on the
right.

lordtaylor - the nicelooking shopping mall of Lord and
Taylor. There is an eagle statue on the floor and
musical organ on top, which plays music on certain
hours. (In 2007, this was turned into Macy's).

Email to home from Philly, dated March 25, 2005 (Thursday)

Hello kids & dear

How're you been getting along without your daddy
around? Hope all of you have been behaving well and
help dad to look after mum. :) Remember to practise
your piano and finish up your homeworks. Put few
ringgits in your schoolbags just in case, sometimes,
you forgotten to get your money for recess or lunch
from mum. Nice talking to you this morning (US time)
which is nite time in Malaysia.

Dad is fine over here in Philadelphia (short form,
people here called it Philly). Stayed in the city
itself, in this hotel called Hampton Inn. Have to walk
for 20 minutes (I think around 1 kilometre) from hotel
to office. It is a nice walk since the weather is
still cold (32 Fahrenheit in the morning). Especially
in the morning walk, sometimes after walking 10 min,
my legs are painful as I do not used to walking so far
and fast. Americans walk very fast (even some old
people) and I do usually follow their pace or else I
will be too tired to reach office.

From my room window just now, I can still see some
snow in the car park below which had not melted yet.
It has been raining last few days (twice this
weekdays). Luckily, I can walk underground as there is
train subway nearby where there are train stations and
also shops and food court. Today, in US, they launched
Sony PSP (playstation portable). All sold out and they
sell it for USD 270. Early morning, when I passed by
the shop, people are already queueing to buy this.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in US as it is
Easter Friday. So, I will have long weekends to rest.
Maybe, on Saturday I might go to New York as the bus
fare is quite cheap nowadays, ie USD 20 for return
fare.

Have been eating Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese
dinners during the past two weeks (time sure passed
quite fast.) Lunch normally are sandwiches and their
servings are too much, which normally I cannot
complete. Yesterday dinner was at Rangoon Burmese
Restaurant, where dad had jungle curry. quite good but
not spicy. normally, I will order 1 dish and rice and
that is more than enough to fill my stomach. Not cheap
though as it costs me more than USD 20 (RM 76) for the
dinner. Just now, had Chinese dinner, ate black bean
clams and brocolli with pork and a beer. Cost me
around USD 25.

Had meeting with dad's boss here during lunch. He
asked dad to finish all my work here by end April.
So, hopefully, dad can come back earlier when dad
completes all the works fast.

Dad has been missing you all and looking forward to
coming back to have fun again with you all!

Later, dad will send you some photos, dad taken during
the last weekends, walking around Philly.

Bye for now and take care. Love you all as always.

Dad

Email from Philly to home, dated March 20, 2005 (Sunday)

hi

bought a kid raincoat for usd 1 (rm 3.80) from the usd
1 dollar shop today. did not buy any other thing as no
mood for shopping.

feeling lonely nowadays as has to eat dinners alone
and stayed in room alone. weekdays are ok as will be
too tired to think much. the newspaper here are quite
boring, not much news. last week, the news are mainly
on the 9 years old girl back in Feb which was
kidnapped and today, they found her body. a man had
been caught. the one news is the man who killed the
judge and few other people last week and had been
caught too. these events happened in some other states
in US. But, Philly also not too safe nowadays as there
had been like two killings a day for the whole year.
so, normally, i will stay in hotel room before 8 pm as
it seems not safe to walk at nites. even though new
york is much populated than philly but the no. of
licenced guns in philly is more than new york.
shocking to me!

woke up at 9:30 am today. went to reading market and
bought a usd 1 strawberry. the fruits look quite
cheap.
went to the town hall after that where William Penn
(the founder of Philly) statue is located. then, went
to usd 1 shop but not much to buy. will wait for u to
come and shop. went to Ross Dress for Less where we
used to buy our jeans etc and then to Strawbridges
(which is having sales now) and The Gallery. Back to
hotel room to rest and to Chinatown for dinner.

Email from Philly to home, dated 18 March 2005

still feeling jetlag. yesterday, slept at 10 pm and
this morning, woke up at 4 am and tried to sleep but
cannot sleep.

had dinner at a chinese restaurant, fried beef kway
teow. very big serving, i can only finished 1/3 of the
plate. it's crazy the serving here! weather is still
cold as i can see some snow at edge of the carpark
from my hotel's window in the morning.

yesterday, somehow, i forgotten my room no. and tried
to get into someone's else room (924). tried many
times, but the key did not allow me to go in.
suddenly, realised, i had the wrong room. my room is
1124. luckily, the person who stayed in the room did
not open the door and scold me as the door hung a 'Do
not disturb' sign. maybe, it's a lady staying inside
the room and i might have frightened her.

this morning, ate the free hot breakfast in the hotel.
the dish looks like hot porridge. so, i just scooped
the top, which looks like gravy. i ate them & actually
it's salty meat gravy. then, i saw opposite me, the
man was eating the same dish. but, actually the dish
is hot gravy on top of some pastry or bread. luckily,
not many people around me, if not they will have a
good laugh on how i eat the dish. :)

time to have a good rest now. bye and take care. luaa!

Email from Philly to home, dated 17 March 2005

hi
hope u're feeling better now after the good rest.
pls use the FD if needed as my salary etc wouldn't go
in until end of the month.

a lot of works in this project as the dateline is very
tight. target is still end april for my work to
complete. problem holding back my work is the
requirements from other teams are not coming in yet as
they also have not completed their functional spec.

yesterday was so tired, i fell asleep while resting on
bed, as have not been getting good sleep so far. still
waking up at 3-4 am i guess due to jetlag. had kfc
yesterday nite (take back to eat in hotel room) but
the kfc is very different from m'sia. somehow, m'sia
kfc tastes much better than the one here according to
my taste. had jap udon noodle for lunch yesterday.

today, had lasagne working lunch as there are so many
meetings that we ran out of time for meeting time. i
guess we're having at least 2-3 meetings a day. so
many gaps to close etc.

4:30 pm we went to cuba libre restaurant for drinks and
finger food. this is a cuban restaurant. had cuban
national drink and many fried cuban finger food. ended
around 7 pm. had good talk with team members, quite a
fair bit of external consultants. two of the men
consultants also have 3 kids each and they're quite
old as one is already a grandpa. on the way back, buy
2 dishes (pork with brocolli) & 1 soup chinese
takeaway for dinner. cost me usd 3. couldn't finish the
food as the serving was too big.

time to sign off now and have a good rest.

bye, take care & luaa,

Email from Philly to home, dated 15 March 2005

Hi

Inside hotel room no. 1124 at Hampton Inn, Philly now
after Indonesian dinner, bath, and then sent out my laundry
(had to leave them at counter).
tried calling your cellphone at 8:15 am M'sia time but
no one answer. was walking back to hotel and it was so
cold as there was wind blowing. suspect it is below 0
celcius. today's temp was 0-7 Celcius. dinner was ok -
beef rendang (actually, not-so-spicy curry) and fried
eggplants dipped in sambal chillies as felt like
eating something spicy today. for dinners, no worry
for me as there are plenty of asian restaurants nearby
in chinatown which is 5 minutes walk away from my
hotel. hotel room is clean but no fridge nor safe.
it took me 15-20 minutes walk to office, so good
exercise for me to slim down based on my food intake.
met more colleagues today and had two long meetings.
very tiring. tomorrow, hopefully have time to start my
work, getting requirements from users on the project
mgt tools they need and will have to get vendors in to
demo etc. still had some jetlag as kept waking up at
nite. need few more days to adjust, i guess.

walked by Strawbridges on the way back today and saw
the lady perfume, Eternity 3.4 Oz is USD 60 and 1.7 Oz
is USD 45. Ralph Lauren Romance 3.4 OZ is USD 67.50
and 1.7 OZ is USD 49.50. according to the saleslady,
perfume does not have discount even though
strawbridges is on sale these few days. Levis jean can
be bought for usd 20. timberland jacket is usd 100.

that's all for now. take care and say hello to the
kids! bye & l.u.a.a. *luv u as always*

Email to home from Philly USA - dated 12 March 2005

Hi

had chinese dinner yesterday nite. cost usd 22 for two
dishes, duck with rice and octopus fried with vege.
cannot finish as too much. slept early as too tired
since can only get 3 hours sleep on thursday nite.

lunch - out with my new boss, Ralph Ruocco (who also had his
35th year service breakfast party yesterday) and
another colleague, Dawn Bordogna. had salmon with coleslaw and a
snapple drink -> cost usd 10 for this, but paid by Dawn, who is
a consultant working on setting up of company Project Management Office
(PMO) here in HQ.

had started meeting in the afternoon - was too tired
to keep awake. hopefully, next week meetings, i will
be more awake.

Photos aboved shown Stockholm in snow and also, Philly
2nd Bank in USA (which is now a museum).
bye for now and take care. send my best regards to the
kids.

ps LSL, time to study hard and smart to get better
mark next time in your exam. LHK and LSS, well done
in your exam results but try harder too so that you
can get all marks in the 90s! Be good to mum and
grandma etc. dad will try to buy some present for each
of you. bye and don't forget to practise your piano
too.

Hello from Philly, USA - email dated March 11, 2005

Hi,

Below some news from me in Philly, USA:

KL to Stockholm took 13 hours. A bit of turbulence in
India and Pakistan but overall, quite smooth flight.

Stopover at Stockholm for 2 hours and price is quite
high at this Sweden airport. Xchange rate is USD 1 =
Sweden dollar 6.2. Calculated the beer can costs RM 8.
There were snow every here in Sweden and the journey
from Stockholm to Newark. Temp. was 0 Celcius.

Stockholm to Newark took 8 hours.
Newark also has some ice as temp was -2 Celcius when
plane landed. Immigration clearance quite fast so
only spent 1 hours at airport before I exit to meet my
driver at around 8 pm Thursday US Time.

Had plenty of food on the flight but dare not eat so
much or else need to change pant here. Visited toilets
twice for berak and watched five movies eg Bridget
Jones 2 (watched those scenes I missed out
previously), A boy named David, Ray (Charles),
Shall we Dance Richard Gere and J.Lo) and
Sunset.. (J.Lo and Pierce Brosnan). All are quite
good movies.

Arrived in Omni hotel at around 9:30 pm US time. Took
1.5 hours from Newark airport, the limo was driven by
a lady. Quite a smooth journey on the 23 hours flight
and the limo ride. Now, in the hotel getting ready to
work tomorrow (which is Friday in US) but for M'sia,
will be nite time. Pls note M'sia is +13 hours ahead
of US Eastern Time. It is almost 12 am (midnite) now.
Time to sleep.

Take care and update again in next few days. Bye.

Chap Goh May - 15th day of Chinese New Year, email dated 23 Feb 2005

Hi guys

Happy Chap Goh Mei to you all! (15th day of Chinese
New Year) Les, time to go to some lake or river tonite
and checkup those maidens or PYTs throwing mandarin
oranges into the water, to get good hubby. Wear a
float as I don't wish you to be too excited and get
drowned by the temptation of lust over there.

Today is a lucky day for me! Why? Yesterday, passedby
1+3D lottery outlet and suddenly, number '2856'
flashed into my mind. So, went in and buy RM5 for this
number. Today, checked the paper and imagine my joy,
when the number came up on Consolation. Went and
collected my RM 1K for the prize money. This Rooster
year seems to bring good luck to me as even in
gambling with relatives and friends (a norm activity
during CNY vacation), I had won more than RM 1.5K in
total. Most of this prize money had been divested into
buying dinners etc. Had been eating out a lot too and
ate too much during these two weeks. Another dinner
this Saturday, omg, time to lose weight, if not, had
to upgrade my pants again (already size 36 now).

Contemplating time to visit Uncle Lim Goh Tong (aka
Genting tycoon) to claim my big angpow from him soon.
Hopefully, my luck will grow better and hit some
jackpot for my early retirement!

Last year, contributed rm 200 roulette money to his
star cruise casino in international water!

So, how have you guys been faring in gambling luck
this year? Hope this is better or the same as mine. If
win big, remember to call me up for dinner and XO
session.

Cheers.

Story from Shanghai - Email dated Dec 26, 2004

howdy guys,

shanghai is definitely booming as tall buildings kept
popping up here and there, like mushrooms after rains.
property price here has shot up quite a lot,easily
more than 50% since 2-3 years ago. my m'sian colleague
rented a 3 bedroom furnished apartment for around rm
3k, which is 5 minutes walk to shanghai office (Hitech Plaza).
carrefours are everywhere. ikea and walmarts (maybe,
in south china as i did not see any in shanghai) are
also in this market. car traffics is getting bad as
more people start to drive. taxi ride in shanghai can
be scary, has a near miss during my last week's stay
there. that's the reason i opt for limo ride to and
from airport (rm 130 per trip on a nice Buick), as
safety with a cost is better than rm 60 scary taxi
ride which might even take you for a one-way ticket to
hell or heaven! when i knocked off work at 2:30 am one
of the nite, i could see workers riding bicycles home
or walking home in group. few hawkers stalls were
stationed just outside the timwell industrial park
compound, where my company's technical centre is
located. imagine the machinery in the plants here are
running 24 hours non-stop, producing products for the
world in the cheapest cost possible.

was on 1st class on return flight as flight was full.
mr edwards, ex-lotus british manager was sitted beside
me. he was sore with proton as the mgt retrenched him
last year. he disclosed a lot of bad experience
working for proton to me as he drank more red wines,
to heal his wounds. anyway, he's now doing well in his
own business, sourcing car spare parts from china
for cars makers. he works mainly in china, but love
m'sia so much, he still has his japanese wife living
in kl at their penthouse apartment, 5 minutes away
from KLCC. he said he managed gen-2 project, the cost
of raw materials for this car is only rm 18,500.
quality is shitty as proton mgt has already allocated
certain group of parts suppliers to buy from as these
groups have already given kickbacks to these
decison-makers. corruptions are a norm and team
members are not qualified. tengku mahaleel gave him 60
m'sian resumes and he chose 12 that seems to be
qualified. only 5-6 members contributed to thie gen-2
project, the rest just collect their pays without much
efforts etc.
he said tengku is not a good manager. just lucky to be
put into that position due to his royalty blood.
he was impressed with chinese workers. he said he
works 7 days, 12 hours per day and his shanghai 26
years old secretary also work the same amount as she
thinks she shd be in office whenever the boss is in.
he forecasted china will be a good country to work in
the next 10-20 years, he sees a lot of potentials in
this country. india, NAR and ER, he discounted all
these countries. 55 years old, with versace jean and
ysl jean shirt, looks more like an ad guy than a
bizpeople. if the flight extended another hour or so,
and we yam-seng more, then he will surely has more to
disclose, maybe, i could write a story of an exec
encounters in mainland.
haha, that will be another story when i bumped into
mr edwards in another flight to shanghai.

ciao again..

Hello from Songjiang, Shanghai China - Email dated Dec 23, 2004

hi guys,

have been here since sunday early morning and will be
back by tomorrow evening. was bumped up to 1st class
during my flight so that i could sleep better but did
not get much sleep since the flight is quite short ie
5 hours and need 1 hour to eat my supper of satays
with red wines before i fall asleep. on sunday, went
to yu yuan plus old street of shanghai for some
shoppings. this place always has new toys for the kids
whenever i come over here every 6 months or so. this
time i paid rmb 20 (rm 9.40) for a spinning top that
float in the air (magnetic power in play) and saw a
lot of stalls selling new small items eg blinking pin
of x'mas deco. etc. bought some for tomorrow evening
x'mas eve dinners. had my 1st street soup noodle with
a slice of marinated porkchop along a small alley, for
only rm 1.90. quite good experience and you will be
surprised from the small alley, what comes out ie
people and then, bicycles plus motorbike also.cheap
dvd also, eg rmb 7 per piece. did not buy many though
as has no time to watch.

headed on to xianyang market at huaihai lu for more
shoppings. bought some cheap watches, barbie jean and
then, walked on to parkson store. sales was on but did
not buy anything here. many people on the streets and
shops and can be quite scary for those who is
agrophobia.

was tired so headed back to hotel for dinner and early
sleep.

been working very hard for past few days. this
morning, went home only at 2:30 am but slept late till
10:30 am as there were many issues faced by my
colleagues setting up new servers in songjiang, which
is 1 hour away from shanghai city. weather is quite
cold now 4-7 Celcius. a lot of new factories had
popped up here since 2-3 years i last visited this
small suburbs of industrial parks. 3m, nestle, ici
paints, e.excel etc factories are here. nice overhead
highway leading to this site. 2-3 years ago, we passed
by only vegetable farms etc. this shows how china
economy is booming with foreign investment. yesterday
evening, it was drizzling and cold. the taxi we took
had wiper problem halfway and we need to take another
cab. we were standing in icy cold drizzle waiting for
10 minutes or so for the next cab. it was damm cold
and an experience for us. luckily did not catch cold.

had been enjoying sumptious and delicious food here
plus tsingdao beer. the autumn soup of beef with
turnips was yummy, the ducks, the kai lan, the
eggwhite with seafood dish etc make me unstoppable and
kept eating. had szechuan dinner too and it was so
spicy, my lips went numb. went to xindianti (pub's
area) for dessert and it changed a lot too since my
last year's visit. x'mas deco were everywhere and
festive season was obviously here with x'mas songs
playing while dining etc.

anyway, time to go home soon, to warm ol' kl!

bye and merry x'mas to all.

Sungai Buloh's Punchow (Selangor)- Written Dec 27, 2004

Attached the aboved for your virtual partaking of this
delicious plus succulent sauces dish, which need to
pre-order one day ahead and cost RM 200. It is fit for
10 adults with rice and there will be leftover if some
are small-eaters! Maybe, will arrange a CNY lunch or
dinner in Feb (go dutch unless your uncle looi kena
Toto RM 2 million tomorrow).

On top, is the siew duck, pak charm kai, fishpaste,
yummy bouncy prawns centred by crunchy brocolli and
cauliflower. Below, will be kai keok (chicken feet),
too kar (porkleg), fatty pork, pacific clams,
mushrooms, abalone look-a-like (actually a mushroom)
etc. Poon-chow means one plate full with varieties of
dishes. Since, we know the owner (my bro-in-law
supplies certain goods to them), we can borrow their
gas heater to warm up the dish before eating at home.
If not, you can visit the air-cond restaurant at Sg
Buloh New Village. Don't know the way, then I will be
willing to guide u there but pls, order one day in
advance.

Email dated August 30, 2004 - Mentakab

I will be posting some old emails that I recovered from my yahoo's account.

Hi guys

Selamat Merdeka Day to all and now is the closing
ceremony for Olympics 2004! M'sia tak-boleh in this
Olympics as we won a big zero medal, what a joke with
the amount of monies paid to train our athletes with
foreigners trainers etc. Our badminton team failed us
and it's time to roll some heads there.

Just back from 3 days vacation in Mentakab town, which
is a timber town in Pahang, where my sis-in-laws'
families live. The new east coast highway bypassing
Karak town is quite good with two lanes each way and
moreover, it is toll-free for the first month of
opening. If not, have to pay rm 2.80 toll from Karak
upto Lanchang town. Drove my wife's newly bought
Toyota MPV there as can sit upto 7-8 people.
Had two fine Oz red wines on Saturday dinner. Highly
recommended as they are smooth. Parker Coonawarra
Estate - Terra Rosa's Cab Sauvignon 2001 is better
than the same brand Merlot 2000 but both are quite
good. Had Noble One's desert wine with Rocher chocs
after meal. Quite good wines and foods (Sempalit Curry
chicken, deep fried chicks and pork ribs, bak kut teh
etc).

On Saturday, went to Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage
Sanctuary (near Lanchang) to feed elephants, have
elephant rides plus elephant throwing kids etc into
stream plus watching a short movie on how the jungle
wardens relocate elephants from oilpalm estate to
Taman Negara. Quite enjoyable and eyes-openers to my
city-bred kids. Caught some prawns from the stream.
Headed on to Deerland which is nearby to check up on
Sun-bear, Ostriches, Deers, Monkey, Phython snake,
rabbits etc. Hopefully, in two weeks time, I will be
heading alone to Taman Negara with my bro-in-law to
check up this forest resort, as he'll having some new
business there soon ie chopping trees down.

Attached some photos for your view and also an URL to
the Elephant sanctuary's website.
http://www.myelephants.org/

The photo of my wife's Unser in front of a timber
tycoon's mansion who lives there only 4-8 days a
month. I stayed nearby at my wife's brother-in-law's bungalow

Ciao..

My mum - Miss Ng

born in Fukien, china, stayed there till she was around 10 years old. she felled into paddyfield and it was winter and she had bad cold (pneumonia). so, grandfather sent her to betong (south thailand) as grandpa was doing biz. in this town. grandpa owned few shops here and also, loaned monies out and make more money via loan interest.

grandma died when my mum is quite young. mum has another elder brother, who passed away in Butterworths. so, grandpa married another step-grandma which resulted in many kids. grandma's sister still around, in her late 80s, staying in kuala terengganu, well-known family in this small town as late husband did a lot of construction biz. grandma's brother, Sia also moved to lahad datu, a successful bizman there with properties, plantations etc but passed away and left all his assets to his many sons.

mum married dad in karangan, kedah and then, moved to kulim. used to work as rubber tapper with my dad at grandpa's rubber estate. dad's parents graves are in Karangan. Grandpa died in his 30s due to stroke or heart attack. grandma dies around 57 years old around late 1950s. step grandpa dies around 1969 an dburied in simpang tiga, near kulim. 1960, whole family moved to Kuala Lumpur due to dad's job.
photo taken when mum was young, circa 1940s. mum is now 80s plus, born in year of rabbit. complaint now is eyes (dropped eyes drop to lessen pressures on eyeballs/glaucoma and kneecaps (went for operation once to replace with metal kneecap on the right leg). but, she is still healthy and walk around to the market etc and has many friends.

27 to 30 December 2008 - Tour de Siem Reap (Angkor Wat and its surroundings)

Written: Early January 2009

happy belated new year to all and families! markets are recovering and hope you can salvage some of your hard-earned cash from the markets this new year.
just got back from a refreshing 4-days vacation in angkor kingdom. met pete teo, the songwriter/singer and ex-minister of tourism on the same mas flights to and from siem reap. did not say hello to pete since he is busy with his family. did not know he has two boy kids (one is teenager) and wife - maybe not, as i just assume.

quite easy to hire a car (toyota camry) and driver for whole day tour (usd 20 for angkor wat's area and usd35 for faraway temples like roulos area or banteay srei temple) and raids on the temples and supposedly tombs of the khymer kings. highly recommended to all who can still walk and climb up the mountain plus the steep narrow steps temple of gods of hindu and buddha. must watch your steps, if not, you will end up as humpty dumpty with a cracked head of angkor-land. downed the lovely cold angkor beers draught together with my food. also drank klang beer (did not know our lovely klang town also produce and export beers?) but not sure why the logo is an elephant though. very safe to travel on your own here as tuk-tuks are plentiful and if you travel alone, then hop on to a bike taxi. dropped by the old market for souvenirs hunting (as normal, cheap rm 5.50 good quality t-shirts, knockoff lonely planet and angkor wat books for usd3.50-4 etc) and big market to checkup what they sells there (fruits, vege, meats ie obscene pig heads with something poked into its nostril, goldstores with no guard and showing off their piles of USD and Cambodian cash notes on see-thru glass etc).

surprisingly, the people here can speak quite good english even youngster (some as young as 6 or 7 years old kids selling bracelets etc) from outside of town. guess all of them know their future or present incomes will come from tourism and english is the best language to pickup. took hundreds of photos, check up some of those in my album. favorite site is ta prohm, the tombs-raider temple with gigantic trees growing on top of the temple and the other is the frequently-taken views of angkor wat, a must have for all who came here.

Kyhmer food are delicious. Famous ones are Amok Fish (taste like M'sian Otak-otak but more coconut creamy), Laluk, pineapple fried with boneless chicken, fried boneless chicken and similar Thai dishes like Tom yam soup, basil fried beef etc. Drank a lot of anchor, angkor and klang beers to cool down the body after the long hot and humid walks around the temples and climbing up and down the steep stairs to the temple hills. Ate at bar street and also around old market (psar cha) of siem reap.

total damage is around rm3.5K for two persons as cash out my MAS airpoints to airtickets but still have to pay airport tax etc (rm 500 each person). Hotel room for 3 nites at Allson Angkor Hotel is around rm 650. Bought > 20 T-shirts to distribute to cousins and for myself and two bottles of liquors (choya, japanese fruit wine) and baileys.

A nice vacation and highly recommended as Angkor Wat was just opened to outsiders back in 1992 after the internal war ended (kymer rouge army used to roam around angkor). My two drivers, Sa and Pung are young and able to speak English. Pung told us the young generation does not support Hung Sen's government but Hung Sen got most supports from the older generation and also weapon help from Vietnam during the war. Cambodia has two kings, Sihanouk and his son but they are just figure heads with not much powers left.

have fun in the new year and busy preparing for chinese new year soon. hope for better news in coming days.

I Come, I Saw and I Conquer - Rome, Italy (Oct 2006)

A great sunny morning for my partner, Queenie and I as we both got driven by my brother in law to Stanstead airport, UK to catch a flight to Rome. Checkin was smooth and then, we waited to be called to the plane. Announcement said the flight will be delayed due to crews caught in a bad jam. With another one hour delay, we patiently waited and then, another bad news came, the flight is cancelled due to fog. We thought our Italy's trip will be ruined.

We stayed calm and then, asked to be put on the next flight but unfortunately, all other flights for the day are fully booked. We decided to take another flight to the nearest airport to Rome, and the one they had was flight to Parma. We had no idea where this town is, and the only close knowledge I had on this town is, it is famous for its parmesan cheese. I found up that this town is north west of Italy and we can take a train ride down to Rome.

Since we did not book any hotel rooms yet for our 7 days vacation in Italy, we took the risk and said, 'just let fate decides where it will lead this journey too'. So, off we go to Parma. Flight was smooth but we were worried about the next step. So, we made friends with the couple that sat beside us. Luckily, the couples are Italian and the wife speaks English. They were in the same boat as us, caught with the unexpected cancellation of the Rome's flight. Husband need to go back to Rome to open his pub tomorrow as they had been visiting London for 3 days. We charmed our way with them and had good chat. We hinted to them that we need their help to guide us down to Rome too. They agreed to help. So, we ended to become travel buddies for the next 8 hours.

We shared cab from airport to train station. The wife showed us the train. We sat in 1st class but then, were shooed away. We ended up at the canteen carriage. It seem we bought the cheapest ticket and the canteen's seats are better and that's where we spent the next five hours riding the train down to Rome. Ordered cappucinos and it came with a papercup with hot water and a small pouch of cappucino powder. Aah, it is instant cappucinos. Anyway, we are glad that we were still heading to our destination finally, even though we would lose half day tour in Rome. Inside the canteen, we networked with other travellers and found up most of them were also in the same ship as us. Heading to Rome without pre-booked accomodations plus in the same cancelled flight.

Two British brothers, Rick graduated three years ago and will join Logica, IT consulting firm in London after his Italy vacation. The other brother, Sam a graduate but now, relaxing a bit and might take up job with university since he is very academic and had brilliant brain, according to Rick. They will bunked up in a dorm, near Vatican City after reading some travel guide. Anne, the british 30s blonde got friendly with the Aussie chap, a dark-skinned Greek or Lebanese, his name I known naught, so I will call him Greekoe. They had beers thruout the journey and I drank just one can of ice-cold Calsberg. Walloped peanuts and checking the conversations and sceneries outside. Rick and Sam said I must be a millionaire after learning I am IT professional and in my early 40s. Anne busy calling hotels and spoke Italian, trying hard to book a room for the nite.

We found up that we will arrive at Rome train terminal around 10pm. Queenie and I were started to panic, and were wondering maybe, we might had to camp up inside the train station if we cannot find room for the nite. 10pm, train stopped at Rome. Greekoe was now drunk and he told us this is the first time in two years, he is seeing his parents who are visiting from Townsville, Queensland. He had been working in London for the past two years. Rick, Sam and Anne helped Greekoe to walk straight and we waved goodbyes to them and the Italian couples. We had a good laugh as in front of us, we saw Greekoe's jean almost felled down, his butt line is showing as he staggered away. Curious what his parents will comment when they saw him turned up drunk after so many months away from each other.

I stopped look-like tourists (Americans) along the street and asked them, whether they know any nearby hotels. Two kind American ladies showed us the way to their hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel is fully booked. Talked to the Algerian frontdesk chap and he told us there are more hotels at the back of the street. So, we wandered further in our hunt for room for the nite. Met a chap who said the laundryman in the laundromat will have a vacant room. So, went in and talked to Baboo, the Bangladeshi laundryman. He showed us to an old lift that took us up to his motel. The room is basic and ok. So, we took it as we were tired. Dropped our bags and headed down for a quick Italian Spaghetti and Pizza dinners before the restaurant closed.

Stayed three nites in Rome. Managed to visit the Vatican City, the colloseum and many historical places in Rome. Enjoyed very much this adventure and the pleasure to immerse in a historical city finally. So, we came, we saw and we conquer Rome at last after the tiring and adventorous journey to this great city. Based on the experience we gained, we took train ride to Bologna and stayed one nite there and enjoyed the scenery there before heading to Venice for two nites stay there as we continued our conquer of part of Italy. We returned back to London happily and contented as the seven days in Italy was great and we will one day return to this country to enjoy our conquest.

Ciao and cheers, d24

Frying Ozzie Dollars and World Financial Meltdowns
The world is getting to be a scary place to live, as bad news came one after another.
First, credit crunch then Financial giants collapsed (Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and AIG even had problem and need to be rescued etc) and markets plummetting and Ozzie dollars also got sold (and dropped from rm3.10 per aud1 to rm 2.20 and now, hovers around rm2.35). bank negara had to guarantee the deposits in banks, if not, depositors will all move monies out of country to other country that can guarantee their hard-earned monies are protected from this crisis.

below my email to my friends on 24-Oct-2008 before i headed to penang island for 3 days vacation:
for those who are frying ozzie dollars - some info..
aiyah, aud dropped again today, now is aud 1 = rm 2.306
2 days ago was rm 2.40 in public bank.
hopefully, unker frying aud will bring up a delicious dish
and good return-lah. nowadays, very hard cari makan.
moreover, so many holidays, no need to work-liao. happy
deepavali to samy and his brothers/sisters. unker will
wallop pun chun bidor duck thigh noodle plus wu-kok, some
pulau tikus & lorong selamat sis char kway teow hawker
foods and sunbathing and get some tan at beach soon. need
some rest. the financial meltdown had resulted in chaos to
my mind, need to get away from the hectic, hustle and bustle
city life.. hopefully not so much rain next few days,
worried about floodings too.

news on aud

http://biz.yahoo.com/fxcm/081023/1224776577122.html?.v=1

"and looking at the daily charts, it's clear that
a consolidation is taking place. As a result, if we see that
commodities bounce higher, perhaps helped along by an OPEC
production cut on Friday, AUD/USD could rally toward
0.7000." steel price dropped a lot as china
constructions slowdown, al and shentat, need u two guys (al & ST) to
go and buy more condominiums-lah
to boost the property market in china.