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| Sunday, 3-Jul-2005 00:00 |
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Treasure hunt ala Amazing Race style
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My team and our ride
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I joined my office treasure hunt today with 3 of my colleagues.... Our group name "Alvin & the Chipmunks!" 
Our treasure route took us from our Regional Office in Section 222 PJ to Uptown and all the way to IOI Resort Putrajaya.
This treasure hunt was different from our treasure hunts as it has some element of Amazing race in it. We have to complete some tasks before continuing our journey. The tasks were eating bittergourd burger, drinking salt water (  it was terrible!), sorting peas and chopping onions.
Surprise! surprise!  out of 34 groups, my team came in 4th! We won a Peirre Cardin trolley bag. Cool! 
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| Tuesday, 21-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Bangkok - Day 4 Shopping day!!!
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An interesting sign.."Down to Customer"??
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At Suan Lum Night Bazaar
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Pall Mall cigarettes have pictures
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After the full day yesterday, the three of us decided that we had enough of sightseeing in Bangkok. We decided to do the activities that girls love the most.......... SHOPPING!!! 
We managed to get a good night sleep and ventured out into town later in the morning. We decided to head to Tesco Lotus which was about less than 1km from the guesthouse. Hee hee, I don't even go to the Tesco at home and I am visiting Tesco in Bangkok.... what a funny thought!
We initially planned about spending only 2 hours in Tesco, but in the end, we spend almost 4 hours there and had lunch at this restaurant in Tesco called MK Restaurant (equivalent of Johnny's in Malaysia). Nice steamboat.
After all the shopping in Tesco, we bought a lot of stuffs, we head back to the guesthouse to unload.
Later in the evening, we decided to head back to Suan Lum Night Bazaar for a second round of shopping. Guys will never survive this holiday with us.
We had dinner at the food stalls at Suan Lum, we tried fried sea crabs.... it was delicious! We left Suan Lum with a tuk-tuk. Had to bargained with them, the first night the tuk-tuk charged us 70 baht. Tonight they wanted 100 baht. We refused, and offered 70 baht. The second tuk-tuk finally agreed to our offer after he got approval from the other tuk-tuks hanging aroung there.
Bangkok is a city full of jams, so you can imagine the smoke inhalation that we had to endure. But we are happy and that's what matters!
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| Monday, 20-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Bangkok - Day 3 Sightseeing
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A view of Wat Arun on the way
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Main entrance Grand Palace
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Hmm... what are they taking??
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Today we decided to visit the Grand Palace, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) and Wat Pho. And what a story I have to tell........
For the journey to the Grand Palace, which was located quite far away from town, we decided to take a skytrain to the pier and take a boat ride along Chao Phraya River to reach the Grand Palace. That way, we get to kill two birds with one stone
When we reached the Tha Chang pier near the Grand Palace, it was just before 8.30am, the palace only opens at 8.30am. We were thinking of waiting at the main gate for the door to open, but somehow, we took the wrong way (found out later it was the side wall that we we walking along)....and had the first experience of the Bangkok con man....
As we were walking along the side wall, a man in decent clothes and umbrella called to us, asking where we were heading to. He told us that all the temples were closed this morning as they dedicate one day in the month as Buddha day. As a result, the monk will have prayers and non-Thais cannot go in, he said only in the afternoon, we can go to the temples. He asked us for a map and drew on my map, saying that there are other temples open at other locations and we can go that for a some of Baht. I tried to pulled my friends away from him as I read in the Lonely Planet book that there are such scams.  it was really difficult.....
Initially we decided to postpone the temple visiting to the next day and turned back towards the pier. One the way, there was a tuk-tuk guy asking where we were going and we told him boat. Right outside the pier area, we glanced across the street and noticed that there were some buses unloading people and decided to go and check it out. After we cross the road and was walking towards the crowds, the same tuk-tuk guy, drove his tuk-tuk near us and point us to the boat, saying that we are going the wrong direction. We ignored him.
We finally reached the entrance of the Grand Palace safely and noted a sign saying that the Grand Palace is open everyday and another message "Don't Trust Strangers!". :surprised: wow, it looks like we almost go conned.
We went around the Grand Palace, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha... it was a really really HOT day, we were melting in the hot sun.
After the Grand Palace, we proceed to walk again to the Wat Pho, along the same way as we came this morning. Again, we never made it to the destination, we were stopped by this guy manning the bus terminal. He asked us where we were going and when we told him, he told us that the King and hid grandson is having prayers at Wat Pho and non Thai cannot go there. He mentioned about the announcement on TV, but our room have no TV so we had no idea. He asked for the map again ( ) and told us about another wat, which usually non-Thai cannot enter, but because of the special day, for one day only, non-Thai can go in and see Lucky Buddha... and he recommend that we go other places first. He also mentioned that Wat Arun, which is located on the other side of the river is currently unaccessible as it is high tide, cannot go into temple. (Oh my god! they are everywhere!!!!) He recommend that we go to the other wat, then visit a particular shopping place (one day sale) and then come back to go to Wat Arun and Wat Pho. We were blur by then and just agreed since we want to complete our itinerary of the day... He called a tuk-tuk for us.
We went to the other temple, there was no one there, but met this guy who works for the temple and he confirmed that the King grandson could be at Wat Pho. After the Lucky Buddha temple, we went to the shopping place that the guy at the bus station recommended.... it was a jewellery factory.... After that, we told the tuk-tuk to take us back to Wat Arun. The tuk-tuk guy ask if he can take us to other shopping areas, we only have to look but not obligated to buy... we insisted no.... he was saying that he can get 2 liters of petrol if we go, but we were really tired and was not interested to go, so we said no. After that, I tell you, the tuk-tuk guy was not as pleasant, he drove erratically back to where we want to go. Note to all, please be careful when you are in Bangkok, be sure to read about the place before coming...
Wat Pho looks normal, and did not look like the King or his grandson was there, but I'm not arguing. It was an exhausting day. However, we did managed to get foot massage at Wat Pho, something that we needed.  After Wat Pho and lunch, we proceeded to the pier to catch a boat to Wat Arun. It was past 2pm when we reach the place. Again, it did not look like it was high tide earlier as the temple was not wet and there was no problem accessing the temple... sigh! Maybe we got conned, maybe not...
It was the most tiring day when we finally reached back to White Lodge.
Later in the evening, we went up the tallest building in Bangkok, Baiyoke Sky to view the whole Bangkok skyline.
Definitely the most exhausting day............
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| Sunday, 19-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Bangkok - Day 2 Damnoen Saduak floating market
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The speedboat before we head to floating market
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Around the corner..market up ahead!
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A lady rowing her boat to the market
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Woke up bright and early this morning as we need to travel 1.5hours to get to the best floating market in Bangkok. Started the journey at 6.30am and reached the Dusit pier at about 8am. The three of us chartered a speedboat to take us to the floating market. Luckily we invited our driver to join our boat, he was our Thai interpreter and he told us what are the foods available.. 
The floating marketing was buzzing with activities as the boaters, mostly women peddle their products to the customers. Did not buy many things as we were there for the experience and most of the time, we get 'rip-off' if we don't know how to bargain. So, we stick to our ritual of eating thai food and shooting pictures. And luckily we were there early because by the time we were about done, the tourists starts to arrive and caused massive jam in the small alleyway of water. The sound of boats screeching with each other is quite scary....
After the boat ride, our taxi took us straight to the floating market sidewalk where we had a delicious bowl of noodle for 15baht!! (about RM1.50) and coke for 10baht (about RM1)...It was a great day and we headed back to Bangkok after that.
Along the way, the taxi man took us pass some salt farms. Wow... the view was spectacular. Water from the Chao Phraya are diverted into ponds and left to dry. Then they harvest the salt and sell them at the roadside or to the town.
After resting off the afternoon, we headed to another night bazaar near Lumphini Park which is quite a distance from where we stay but connected by the skytrains and subways. This night bazaar is a 'gwailo' haven with loads of pubs around the area. The shops are more organised and easily to navigate. We made a lot of purchases that night! We wandered around till 11 plus and took the infamous 'tuk-tuk' (motorcycle taxi) back to White Lodge.
Wow, great long day!
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| Saturday, 18-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Bangkok - Here I come!
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Went to Bangkok for 5 days for a short holiday with my girl friends!
I took Malaysia Airlines, had a great flight over to Bangkok, all ON TIME!
I would recommend this guesthouse that I stayed in for the duration of my holiday. White Lodge is located right smack in the middle of the shopping area in Siam Square. You know how girls are.... it was a shopping haven, right at our doorstep... at a very affordable price... 600baht for the triple-sharing room, it comes with air-con, fresh towel, bed and hot shower (but the hot shower boycotted against me only but not my room mates! ). The guesthouse ppl were very nice. If you are not into full facilities, this guesthouse is good enough...
We arrived before noon and after we finished checking in, we headed to Chatuchak Weekend Market, took a Skytrain, very fast, very efficient....
Chatuchak market is HUGE....and after rounding a few times, you will definitely get LOST! But the weather was hot and humid, so we did not buy much at the market because a sticky body clouds the mind...
But there was a stall at Chatuchak that we bumped upon while looking for the toilet, it serves cool iced lemon with soda. Refreshing!!
My friend, KPS will be murdering me soon as she said, please don't show her pictures on the web... but what can I do, it's either me in it or I'm holding the camera! (Sorry ah, KPS!)
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| Monday, 13-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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June office birthdays
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All a year older this month!
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Blowing the house down!
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Cake cutting ceremony
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This month's office birthdays... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL!! 
Taken with a Nokia 6681 cameraphone - 1.3 megapixels
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| Wednesday, 8-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Beary cute
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cute bear
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A cute bear on my bag...
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| Tuesday, 7-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Clear day
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Lonely cloud
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Took this picture outside the window where I work with my Sony Ericsson T610
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| Sunday, 29-May-2005 00:00 |
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Esplanade, Penang
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I stayed over in Penang for the weekend at Gurney Hotel. This hotel is facing the Esplanade and I can see far beyond the horizon at the 34th Floor.
The hotel was suite-styled and even have a jacuzzi bathtub in the suite. Ambience was pleasant, however, the room smelled of smoke and you can hear elephants jumping around the ceilings in the morning. Parking is quite limited at the hotel basement.
Penang, a food haven, during my short time there, I managed to eat durians, laksa, curry mee, java mee, fried oyster, balitong, fried kueh teow, ABC, sweet sour crabs, tomyam prawns, dim sum and drank loads of umbra (a hairy fruit popular in Penang). 
Managed to take some pictures on the morning after we checked out of the hotel.
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| Saturday, 28-May-2005 00:00 |
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Anatomy of a nutmeg
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A ripe nutmeg
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The 'alien' seed
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Another shot of the nutmeg
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Today is the first day in my life that I saw how a real nutmeg looks like. Was in Penang for the weekend for a food spree.
What was even more interesting was the seed. A coat of red veins cover the seed of the nutmeg and if you smell it, you can smell nutmeg....
Looks like an alien being to me!
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