Photo Essay : Let's Check Out The Sky and Look Up Now!

Let's check out the sky and look up now!

Here are some  pictures of the beautiful blue sky taken on different timing in this sequence : afternoon, sunset and sunrise . Always take the time to look around you. For starters, you can start by looking at the sky. You won't know what you will miss out if you don't take the time to LOOK!

Let's check out the sky and look now!

[caption id="attachment_1921" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Overcast and spotlight emerging from the sky"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1922" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Clouds and the Sun!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1923" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunset and dark clouds. It's going to rain anytime now!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1047" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunrise in blue"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1924" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It is early morning and you can still see the moon and a shooting star? Nah, it's a plane!"][/caption]

Is it a must to buy travel souvenirs during your travel?

I have a question for you travellers today. Is it a must to buy travel souvenirs during your travel? How necessary are travel souvenirs to you when you are travellling? Personally, I am not a fan of those travel souvenirs. However, I got to admit I did go all crazy over collecting travel souvenirs back then when I was a travelling teenager.

Why don't I buy travel souvenirs anymore and why do I think it is an unnecessary piece of memento to bring back home? Here are the reasons why I don't want to buy or collect no more travel souvenirs :

1. I have come to realized that some, if not most of the travel souvenirs I have bought (either from local travel or abroad) can be easily found from the local street market selling arts and souvenirs ranging with a huge bargain if you know how to haggle your way through things.

2. Most of the souvenirs sold at the souvenir stalls are typically made in China or India items. Well at least some of them are. Haha. So when it comes to buying something totally original from the country of origin where you happen to travel at the moment, the whole point is all lost altogether there. It is never going to be a 100% authentic souvenirs from that particular country you are travelling at.

3. My so called 'prized' souvenirs especially some drawings I've collected or bought from various countries have never found themselves framed up and hooked on the walls of my room. Unfortunately, they are all been stashed away in the closet in the same wrapping it was bought and seriously, I have no idea when they are ever going to be found displaying beautifully on any picture frame at my home. Not that they are ugly drawings or anything, I am just plain lazy to make the effort to frame things up. Haha.

4. Collecting lots of little souvenirs acquire space in my living which I don't really have at the moment. As to my current ideal life of living as a minimalist, I can do away with living without that many souvenirs displaying on my table although I still hang on to still a couple of  favourite souvenirs that I have collected a long time ago.

Then again, that is personally what I feel about why I don't buy travel souvenirs during my travel. Unless and only unless if it is something of a real value that I can never find ever again anywhere else in the world, probably I will get that one valuable travel souvenir to bring home. Hey, you got to at least buy something that is totally worth it to really identify something as a true travel souvenir, am I right?:)

Is is a must for you to buy travel souvenirs during your travel? If it is yes, why is that?

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011 Early Bird Registration Ending Soon!

Have you been looking forward to participate for the first time in your life to run in the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011? Have you? Well at least for me, I have  been looking forward for it for a such a long time already now. Haha.  The early bird registration for the Standard Chartered KL Marathon has started since January 17 2011 and the last chance for you to grab the early bird, cheaper registration fee ends this February 28, 2011.

The early bird price for the each categories are as the following :

Full Marathon (42KM) - RM60

Half Marathon (21KM) - RM55

10KM - RM50

5KM Fun Run - RM40

*These fees rate are applicable for Malaysians. Different fees rate applies for other nationalities.

You may want to know when is the KL Marathon 2011 starting? The Standard Chartered KL Marathon is starting in exactly 120 days to go , that's about 4 months left on the 26th June 2011, Sunday. That should be probably enough time for you to begin your marathon training session now. I'm thinking to join up the 10KM run and no, I have never ran a marathon ever in my life. However, I was a bit of a runner back then during my teenage years. So yeah, it still takes lots of practice to get back to the groove.

If you are serious about joining up a marathon this year, Standard Chartered KL Marathon will be a good place for you to get started on your first ever marathon. So, go and grab the early bird registration fees now and all the best in your marathon training. For registrations (all registrations must be done online and only online payments are accepted), go to this Standard Chartered KL Marathon Registration page here. For KL Marathon Registration Fees details, click here.

Fast, Easy and Yummy To Fix Omelette Recipe for Breakfast

I don't know about you guys, but I love waking up early in the morning because I will be so hungry that I need to really hearty breakfast to kick start the day. One of the best thing to have for breakfast ( a hearty and healthy one) is a fast, easy and yummy to fix omelette. My stomach is making noises now ( it's 7 am and I bloody need my breakfast! haha) , so I'm going to scribble a quick, way too good and healthy omelette recipe that I would love for you to make yourself for breakfast. Here goes:

Fast, Easy and Yummy to Fix Omelette Recipe ( for breakfast or even dinner - which ever way you like it) :

- beat 2 eggs , preferably the one labelled with Omega 3 thingy on the box.

- I like to add a bit of milk on my eggs because I think I saw chefs do it this way. Haha. You can also add some water to substitute the milk if you are out of milk in the morning. Ouch!

- I also like to add some herbs in everything that I cook. Food tastes much better with add on herbs or spices. I usually use some Italian Herbs for my omelette. Any type of herbs that you think you would like to have , you can just throw it in the eggs you have beaten.

- Next some pepper and I don't usually use salt because the eggs,milk, and herbs combination are just too good to be spoiled with some sodium. Well it is up to you about the salt.

- Heat your pan, oil it a little with some good extra virgin olive oil ( good for your heart), wait until the pan gets really hot and pour in your eggs, milk, herbs, pepper mix. Spin the pan a little so that you will get a nice round omelette on the pan. Next, add your choice of vegs.

- I really need to eat more vegs, so the the best fix for this omelette will be to add on some onions, button mushrooms and baby spinach all in the pan. I've even tried putting some left over grilled salmon from last night's dinner and it was a really awesome thing to top on your omelette.

- Omelette ready, eat it over with some brown bread toasts, coffee/tea and some juice. Absolutely healthy and yummy.

Hope you guys will try out this recipe now and man, gotta run and make my own awesome omelette now. :)

Bukit Tabur : Things you need to know about Tabur

Updated 24 Jan 2014 :

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE ON BUKIT TABUR:

Due to several life threatening incidents occuring at Bukit Tabur, currently you:

- MUST get a PERMIT from Pejabat Hutan Daerah Selangor Tengah, Cheras before entering Bukit Tabur.
- Visiting hour is only ALLOWED on Saturday & Sunday from 7am-5pm.
- A fee of RM 5 per person is incurred.
- You will be considered as trespassing if permit is not obtained.
- Some people has managed to get a monthly pass to enter Bukit Tabur, so that’s good news.

* For more updates and info, it’s advisable to join this FB PAGE : The Trekkers

http://www.facebook.com/groups/bukittabur/

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THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BUKIT TABUR

Finally, I got the chance to hike up Bukit Tabur and many thanks to our hiking 'kakis' (inclusive of meeting 2 readers from this blog)  and  guides for making it possible.  No doubt the hike will be nearly impossible if I were to just go alone with my partner, FF like how we used to do go hiking just the two of us at Broga Hill. If you are a first timer to Bukit Tabur or simply Tabur, there are a few important things you may need to know about this hike. Whatever listed below is subjected solely to my own personal opinion and my first time experience at Bukit Tabur.

[caption id="attachment_1896" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Bukit Tabur lake view. Looking a bit hazy no?[/caption]

Here goes the list of things that you need to know about Bukit Tabur / Tabur :

- Bukit Tabur is located at Taman Melawati and if you don't know your way like all first timers, you are for sure to get lost. Haha. Don't bother asking the people near the little town of Taman Melawati for directions because most of them will be plain clueless about the place. Oh wait, if you ask the wrong type of people, probably they just don't know about a quartz hill somewhere in Melawati.

- Get your exact directions checked with people who have been to Bukit Tabur before to avoid getting lost. You have to go through the hilly housing area with big houses and coming down to a narrow path to get to this place. Puncak Niaga should be a good landmark to ask around for directions from the locals.

- Bukit Tabur is a combination of a short uphill hike from the start and then the rock climbing sections and a little bit of relaxing hike (nothing really crazy uphill hike like Broga Hill) to get you to the peak with the Malaysian flag. I lost count of the number of peaks you have to go through but it is kinda a LOT! About 4 at least.

- Bukit Tabur is NOT a suitable and safe training ground if you are thinking to train for Mt.Kinabalu. It gets a little bit dangerous when you are climbing the rocks at Tabur and in case you don't know this, Mt.Kinabalu does not need rock climbing abilities to get you to the top. It is funny to claim that, a couple of us were thinking that Bukit Tabur is way tougher than climbing Mt.Kinabalu ( we went up Mt. Kinabalu last year). Haha.

- If you are a shortie (like yours truly) you may have a bit of trouble descending with the rope at the rocks. The reason being :  you can't see the next landing point ( a safe rocky surface to land your feet)while you are descending and you need people from below to guide on your steps , since you can't really reach your feet further down - the next best thing to do is to lower down your body by hanging on the rope with both hands and lower your body to reach the next step at the rocks. This part of the descent can be challenging ( only for short people, haha) because you have to trust yourself that you can hang on to the rope strong enough and of course trust on the rope too! Take your time during these rocky downhill descent with the ropes, stay focus and don't even think about panicking. :)

- The lake view at the top of the rocks should be really beautiful and it is a great place to fiddle around with your cameras  if and only if, you depart from the starting point really early. Let say depart while it is still dark so that you can catch the sunrise. In our case, we departed while most people have already left. Ouch!

- The returning route was fairly easy. We went through a downhill track towards the durian orchard. Don't worry, there will be no more rocks to ascend and descend on this route if you have been totally traumatized by the whole rock climbing experience earlier. As of the basic rule of any hiking, bring a lot of water, food and drink a lot of them water. If you are experiencing cramps and light headed, it is a sign that you need to drink more water. I would say a good 1.5liter of water is what you need to be carrying for this hike.

- The whole gang clocked a pretty good timing about 3.5 hours (is that good timing?) for the whole hike (up and down) but I'm pretty sure it will take longer time if we decided to come down the same way the came up ( the rocky hills) or continue forward towards the East side ( I think it is East, I may be wrong about this).

In conclusion, I'm saying Yay! I've done Bukit Tabur and will I go there again? I need to think about that first. I would like to think that I can upped my endurance and stamina with a safer training ground on other hills instead. Whatever the verdict is, Bukit Tabur is definitely challenging thanks to the rock climbing experience and it is something different from what you will expect from a typical hill jungle trekking.

My Top 10 Favourite Travel Quotes

I would like to share with you My Top 10 Favourite Travel Quotes that hopefully will inspire you to travel and explore more of this world. There are obviously more than 10 Best Travel Quotes that anyone can list down. However, by far these ten has got to be my favourite and best travel quotes to live by with as I head for my next travel destination.

My Top 10 Favourite Travel Quotes are :

1. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

2. "The traveler sees what he sees.  The tourist sees what he has come to see."  - G.K. Chesterton

3. "We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment."  - Hilaire Belloc

4. "Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness." - Ray Bradbury

5. "To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change."  - Charles Horton Cooley

6. "Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. " - Anatole France

7. "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."  - St. Augustine

8. "A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." –  Moslih Eddin Saadi

9. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

10. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” –  James Michener

Which one is your favourite travel quotes? Care to share them with me?

Langkawi Island : Langkawi Island Hopping

[caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dataran Lang, Langkawi, Gunung Mat Cincang"][/caption]

Langkawi Island is quite possibly one of the best and beautiful island to visit in Malaysia. The first time I visited Langkawi Island with my family was way back in the 90's where Langkawi is just about beginning to bloom as a hot tourist spot in Malaysia.  I went back to Langkawi again in 2009 and wow, Langkawi has changed a lot - for the better that is. One of my main reason to come back was to go on a Langkawi Island Hopping trip besides checking out other cool, new places around the island as well.

We went with a group of 4 and thanks to some promotion with AirAsia, we got to fly straight into the island inclusive of staying for 3 days 2 nights at Awana Porto Malai Resort with total cost per person (air tix + hotel) for about RM300. That was like super cheap and a real bargain.  For the Langkawi island hopping trip we bought our tickets from one of the tour operators booth along Pantai Cenang. I think we paid around RM 35 or was it RM40 (can't really remember)/pax for the and the standard three islands hop : Pulau Beras Basah , Tasik Dayang Bunting and Pulau Singa Besar. The tour is inclusive of transport from your hotel to the jetty which is located just beside the Awana Porto Malai Resort.

I don't know if July is an off season for Langkawi and probably it is because throughout the whole day of our Langkawi Island hopping trip, it was raining really heavily. The tour guide was even asking us if we wanted to skip the trip and do it tomorrow instead because of the weather and we were like, " Hey it is more fun to go on a boat ride while it is raining heavily, right? " . So we hopped on the boat with a couple of crazy tourists who probably are just about as adrenaline junkie as us and man, that must have been the best boat ride I have even been to.

The whole boat ride was bumpy and at some point it started to rain really heavily and all of us in the boat were drenched in rain with the chilly wind and waves. It was just the coolest boat ride ever. Haha. Thankfully, no one got thrown out of the boat and we reached our first destination Tasik Dayang Bunting. Since we were already wet from head to toe, we decided to jump into the lake for a swim and who cares if it was raining. The lake is surprisingly warm and it was a good dip to get out from the cold. However, the lake is really dark green in colour and God knows what are sitting at the bottom of the lake. Overall, Dayang Bunting Lake is really beautiful and it is good a place to snap great picture and we would have done that if not for the rain.

Next, everyone hopped back on the boat and we went to the second island which was Pulau Singa Besar.  This is where the boat driver started to throw some food, I think it was bread to those huge eagles. Yet again, this place is a great spot for picture snapping.

Finally, the last of the island hop ended at Pulau Beras Basah. I was literally 'basah' or wet and began shivering the moment we stepped on the beach of the island. A couple of us from the boat had to knock on the door of the one and only coffee shop at the island so that they can start making coffee or anything hot for all of us to drink. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling the cold. It was still drizzling by the time we got at Pulau Beras Basah and we were just hanging out, drinking hot drinks and checking out fish at the jetty.

Soon after, everyone boarded the boat yet again and we headed back to the jetty that we had departed from. You can purchase some souvenirs with your photos stuck on it - some kind of a plate picture frame thingy, which we bought because we look good and candid in the pictures and off we went back for lunch at our hotel.

The whole trip was incredibly fun, adventurous thanks to the rain and bumpy boat ride and yeah, it was a fun trip altogether. If you must visit Langkawi Island in the future, it is a must for you to do the Langkawi island hopping trip. Also, don't bother pre-booking the island hopping trip from websites online because it is usually cost a whole lot less or cheaper if you buy the tickets directly from the tour booths along Pantai Cenang. And yeah, you can bargain for the price too if you are good at it. :) All in all, Langkawi Island hopping really rock on!

* Note: The pricing for the Langkawi Island hopping trip mentioned here (RM35-Rm40) was the pricing for 2009. The price may have gone up for 2011.

Animals Anecdotes 22 : Brownie and her few weeks old puppy

Ever since the puppy is born , Brownie the first time mama has been doing a pretty good job at nursing her one and only puppy. Her little baby should be about 3 weeks or so old by now and we first saw a glimpse of this little guy ( a male puppy) just a couple of days back.

I can't really capture a proper picture of this little fella because he is still only playing around under the dark sandy area of the cabin. However, we are so glad to see how healthy he has turned out to be. The little puppy is well fed by Brownie and he is so chubby and round with the the same light brown skin colour as his mother, Brownie. Currently, he is wobbling his way through while walking. He still has one eye closed with the other one only half open but man, the little guy can make a loud but cute yelp when we started calling him. Haha.

Overall, it is pleased to say that Brownie's few weeks old little puppy is in a pink of health and we hope that he will grow up healthy and a chirpy, smart and happy puppy just like his mother. :)

Bicycle Touring Trip : Sitiawan - Lumut

I am blessed to grow up in a bit of an outdoor crazy family and we had a good share of a crazy family adventure by going on a bicycle touring trip last week. After going for a round island cycling trip at Pangkor Island years ago, we had always thought of planning for a cycling road trip and thank god, my brother finally got the bicycles fixed. We only had three remaining bicycles out of probably about five bicycles which are the ones we used back in the 90's to travel to school everyday. I must say they are all  still in good running conditions after some tires fix and oiling. The oldest bike has to be my dad's Shimano's racing bike. God knows from which era the bike comes from. It either should be around circa late 70's or early 80's. Gosh, that is ancient!

[caption id="attachment_1864" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="My trusty old bike. Lost the rear reflector thingy during this trip. "][/caption]

So with 3 persons (my siblings and I) on the bicycles while my parents were happily riding on the escort motorbike - the notoriously 'powerful' Honda Cub, haha, we kicked off from our home in Sitiawan heading towards Lumut. We prefer to use short cuts and back roads because there will be less traffic and more to venture around to.

Below is the list of  places that we went along the way on our bicycles kicking off from Sitiawan to reach our destination Lumut and back home again to Sitiawan:

• Sitiwan (Home) - back road Jln Kg. Bintang heading to Maybank Manjung -  Manjung Stadium

• From the Stadium, push on straight through the housing areas in Manjung and at one turning take right heading to Teluk Rubiah

• We somehow went through Kg. Dato Seri Kamaruddin and was awestruck when we saw a really huge, new school in Manjung which is the SMK Kg. Dato Seri Kamaruddin. I must say the kids who go to school there are a lucky bunch because that school is so huge and new. I bet the facilities are great too.

• From the school, we kind of lost our way and went through a row of houses that leads to a dead end. Made a turn around and went on another wrong turn into a palm oil plantation. We got back on track by going straight through the dirt road with lots of holes ( a good one for mountain bikes), got chased for a while by a super territorial dog, saw two men on a kapchai trying to catch a beautiful blue bird near the bushes and we came up to a corner junction towards TNB Manjung Power Plant. We didn't go further up to the power plant ( we went only up until the power plant signboard, haha) and along the way we past by the Teluk Rubiah PLKN camp. There were no kids at the camp at that time.

• As we couldn't find a road from Manjung to exit at a housing area opposite the Tamil school at Pundut, we had to make a u-turn, head back to the main Manjung intersection near the Manjung Mosque.

• Took a left turn and cycled straight all the way to Lumut, cycling along the Jln Iskandar Shah road. At one of the traffic lights ahead near the quarry area, there was an accident but no one was injured. There was also a lorry load of the lion dance team with drumming away playfully on the lorry.

A couple of stops later and with a sore bottom by now, we reached the little hilly road at Lumut. At that time there was a bit of a commotion going about with my sister and my brother. The next thing that I knew, I zoomed past them, I was ahead alone and saw my sister sitting as a pillion rider on the Honda Cub whilst my mum took over the bicycle instead. Haha. The story is my sister hit a huge rock with the bike because she was trying to avoid from hitting the rear end of my brother's bike. Gosh!

• A quick cooling and eating pit stop at KFC Lumut. Rested for about 40 minutes and went back to Sitiawan cycling along the Lumut Esplanade and the yatch club. Snapped some pictures and it was almost noon by then so we stopped less and cycled more.


• We pushed forward and took a left turn at the Manjung - Teluk Batik intersection, cycling along towards the Taman Paya Bakau Lumut (Lumut Mangrove Swamp Park) - Taman Samudera Manjung - Billion - Manjung Mosque - joining back to the road we came earlier (that will be the road around the Fasa something? housing area, haha)


• Cycled through the highway (some sort of a highway) that leads straight to Kg. Koh , stopped at a plant nursery along the road (haha) and finally took a left to Jln Kg. Bintang and to Home!

All in all the total duration and distance for our little Sitiawan-Manjung-Teluk Rubiah-Lumut-Manjung-Sitiawan Bicycle Touring Trip are:

Duration : Sitiawan - Manjung - Teluk Rubiah -Lumut : 1.47 hour (lots of breaks and about 47 min stop at KFC)

Lumut - Manjung - Sitiawan: 1.06 hour (not much stops, only stop for quick drinks)

Total duration undertaken : 3.35hour (inclusive of rests and stops)

Total distance undertaken : A rough estimation of about 30KM. It could be less.

Outcome gained from the Bicycle Touring Trip : Is a healthy, fun family cycling activity. Need to adjust the height of the seat to avoid sore legs and need to change all seats for a wider, more comfy versions to minimize sore bottoms. Haha.

Will we do this often soon? Yeah, we probably will next time around. :)

I can go high on Groove Armada baby!

I just feel like sharing this, it is something that I really enjoy listening and can go high on! Besides the endless songs from anything Dance, Club, Electronica and Rock by  bands like Tiesto , Oakenfold, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and many more and if you are into these kind of genre, you have and got to love , yeah it is a necessity to love Groove Armada , alright! :)

I listened to way too much of their Greatest Hits - Groove Armada album and I love every single tracks in them. You just can never go wrong with genres like Electronica, Big Beat, Trip Hop ...whatever they call them. Haha.

So yeah, enjoy a little bit of Groove Armada here from YouTube because I just want to share with you some really awesome vibrating, energetic, real music okay! Enjoy!

Get Down - Groove Armada & Stush (YouTube)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLVoS-kgDaM

To listen more of the Greatest Hits Album by Groove Armada from Amazon.com click here.

Places you should avoid travelling to during the festive holiday season

Festivities celebration is most likely equivalent to holidays and there will be a pretty good chance that it will be a long holiday as well. For most people it is a huge opportunity to go some place, some where to wind down, relax and have a much needed break away from work. One of the best tips that is worth noting while you are traveling for your holidays during the festive season is to block out and avoid a couple of places away from your getaway holiday.

Places you should avoid travelling to during the festive holiday season are:

- The beaches

- Islands with beaches

- Highland resorts

- Anywhere labeled as a hot tourist spot

Haha! I know this sounds almost ridiculous to totally block out the normal places that people go to for a getaway, but believe me, it is just so much worth it to strictly follow by these guideline. But why should you really avoid the places listed above?

The reason is simple. Those places are crowded, jam-packed and there will be a gazillion of people trying to go to the same place as you do. Imagine going to an island, hoping to laze around under the sun on the beautiful beach only to be overwhelmed by throng of people  and if you are even lucky, you may get a spot at the beach. So for all the reason that it is going to be crazy and fully loaded with way too many human beings, you ought to might as well skip going to all those places (beaches, islands,highland resorts,tourist hot spot) during any festive seasons at all time.

Hence, the places that I suggest you to go instead are :

To stay around the city and go to tourist hot spots around the city instead. This is because all the city dwellers are hoarding the outskirts and suburbs, so yeah, it is a great chance for you to roam around town with less people around to rub shoulders with. Haha. Some suggestions on city tourist hot spot  will be the parks, exhibition centers, art galleries, theaters, the zoo, museums and you can even enjoy some outdoor fun like jungle trekkings around the vicinity area of the city and the lists are endless.

Another next best thing to do and quite possibly the best way to keep you stress free from the traffic IS to just stay in and have a lovely bbq and fun 'eating and games' session at home with your family. What a better way to spend a quality time (which we don't often get to do) with the people you love and want to have more time around with. So go crazy and have a great party with lots of fun and laughter. That will surely do the trick for a much relaxing and much needed getaway.

And...if you really must go to some beach just so you can wind down, travel abroad to places like Bali or Phuket and enjoy the beaches there instead. Hopefully you won't be bumping around on too many local people from where you are coming from. :)

Don't you agree with me that you should just simply avoid travelling to hot tourist areas during the festive holidays? Those places are just too crazy and hectic to be around with. So yeah, staying in and sticking around the city by far are the best things you can do during the festive holiday season, or unless you have a better suggestions on places we can go to minus the crazy crowd, then do share your thoughts at the comments below. Would love to hear it out and make some pointers out of that too!

Animals Anecdotes 21 : Morning greetings from little doggies

What a wonderful way to start your day when you are greeted by really lovely, cheerful, happy animals!  Besides the endless chirping of the birds ( a real noisy bunch of them little birdies) sometime around 7 am in the morning or during the first light of the day, the friendly neighbourhood dogs are a great morning greeters too!

I have mentioned about the little furry, really big round eyes dog called Jojo back in the first of these Animals Anecdotes series. At the moment, Jojo who is a she, the well known friendly neighbourhood dog, is accompanied by another few weeks old puppy. I am really bad at identifying dog breeds but the most I can tell you about this puppy is, it is a male, has long ears and he is light brown with some dark brown patches. I think that's how he looks like. Haha.

Anyway, both Jojo and the puppy were being all friendly this morning. Wagging tails in front of our front gate and all they wanted is to play and say Hi! I guess. It is really amazing on how little things like in this case, little doggies coming around and being all too cute and just plain happy to make you happy and make you crack a little smile, all that in the early hour of the day.

That was by far amongst one of the best things anyone could ever asked for to kick start the day and yes, all animals are most welcome to our home - be it dogs, birds, squirrel, butterflies, cats, frogs, ants, snails and etc. Until more morning greetings to come from Jojo and the puppy. Oh, I should remember to have my handphone around as well to snap some pictures of these two. :)

Man, it's Monday and you gotta love this : Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix

Oh Man! It is MONDAY!

and ...

I need to put up something quick so let's check out something fun and awesome today shall we! If you love music and your choice of an instrument is the guitar, you gotta love this by Jimi Hendrix. Introducing my all time favourite : Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAXW30mMAg

I really don't care anything about the lyrics. I care solely for the beat and rhythms of the guitar. Hope you'll enjoy this song too and yeah, Happy Monday everyone!

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Holidays like again!

I just want to do a quick shout out to everyone: Have a Happy Chinese New Year celebration and I hope you had a great reunion dinner tonight with your families. I bet the food must have been awesome. And for everybody else, Happy Holidays like yet again! Gosh, this country got to stop having too many holidays. Haha.

Okay, the holiday is up, so are you traveling anywhere this holiday? If you are, where are you going?

Hope everyone will have a safe and happy awesome time. Happy Chinese New Year again ya'll!

Photo Essay: Introducing Meine Kleine Plant!

I just thought and feel that having a little bit of green around as a house plant won't hurt anyone. It is going to be a win-win situation for the both of us, I do hope so, yes! So yeah, I would like to introduce to you  'Meine Kleine' Plant. Enjoy the pictures!

[caption id="attachment_1798" align="aligncenter" width="302" caption="Meine Kleine Silhouette"][/caption]

I am not particular sure of the family name of this plant. I doubt that it is  from the same family as Pothos because Pothos can grow and 'crawl' all over the place. I don't think this one can. Which ever family it comes from, I sure love the dark green colour of its leaf. A true rich green. That's what they are.

[caption id="attachment_1801" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Meine kleine pictured with two little turtles - courtesy of the WWF 2010 Annual Review Highlights booklet"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1802" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="'Lil gnomey' und meine kleine 'plant'!"][/caption]

Oh yeah, I shall be on a lookout for some nice colourful pot for this plant. Something bright should be fun!

[caption id="attachment_1803" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="'Meine kleine plant' on Sepia mode and with shadows"][/caption]

Oh just in case you don't know Deutsch, Meine Kleine is translated as My Little!

What would have been your favourite travel memories?

By far these are the things that happened during my travels and all of them are certainly unforgettable memories. They are something that I can find myself talking over and over again and laugh out loud just thinking and sharing about it. :)

1. Running a couple of blocks away at night to catch our bus where it is the rule of this country that it is illegal to jaywalking. We crossed the roads illegally anyways and got honked and cursed at I think. All the while, we kept running and laughed way too hard. Haha.

2. Running again under extremely heavy rain at night yet again to catch a bus and because it was a sudden heavy rain, the place started to get flash flood and the only shelter to get out of the rain was to huddle with another friend with all drenched up clothes, no umbrella of course, haha, standing pathetically in front of a close, gated little temple.We still got wet anyway.

3.  Getting told off by a super concerned taxi driver because I was struggling to reverse a manual transmission car. Damn it. He specifically told me not to drive around because it can be dangerous for everybody.  Haha. The best part of all, while I was struggling to even get things into gear in that darn car, one person out of nowhere offered to help me reverse the car and people around there are so so nice and extremely helpful. May God bless them all!

4. Complaining about a new place out loud during transit, all the while speaking in English in a country that doesn't really speak one or so we thought they don't. Since it had been a long journey, we were feeling tired, smelly, crappy, bloaty or simply put it as extremely exhausted that we started to whine and fidget and talk shit. Haha. Only seconds later during our deep in 'trash talking' conversation, we heard a couple next to us, out of the blue, switching language from their native language to English. Like oh dang it! They caught us trash talking about their country. Hahaha.

5. Being told off rather stupidly by a stern looking guard at some palace somewhere. It was dumb and embarrassing. But yeah, I can laugh about it now though.

6. Getting caught in a path with a bunch of really loud Americans. You tell me if there are any Americans who are not loud and vocal? Lol! With thick deep ascent, one of them went, " Let's follow this path!". Not so funny here right, but the thing is, we thought it will be great to talk like they do and went on a full fledged repeat of 'Let's follow this path' in thick American slang like over and over again. It drives everyone nuts!

7. Got flirted with a mountain guide. Haha. Okay as long as you are cute, so who cares. I'll smile back at you which is something I don't do at all if you are a stranger and trying to do some lame pickup line. But when you are up the mountain, I think the fresh air will get at you. High places actually makes you happy. Hence, it might make some sense if everyone feels the same way too and also I guess it is just alright if some people just want to go a little bit crazily happy as well. :)

8. Eating (more like being a glutton and stuffing up my face) super cheap and delicious seafood and thanks to that, I went on a full board bad diarrhea with constant vomiting right until an hour before boarding our plane home. I was literally eating until I was sick. Lol! Been there, done that and lesson learned. I am so not going to stuff my face ever again no matter how good or cheap that food is.

9. Falling off a bicycle on a slippery iced tarmac. Me bum went all sore right after that.

10. Hanging on to dear life by gripping the iron rod until my hands went all white while on a mad, adrenaline ride of an auto ( a three wheeler motorbike taxi) and I really thought we were going to crash and hit other motorists on the road.

and the list goes on and on...

Traveling is no doubt about experiencing the whole journey and yeah, little eventful things during your travel will ingrained lots of memories for the rest of your life. If you want to explore and discover, go ahead and travel!

Listening to something old skool : Creed- Higher (YouTube)

What is not to like from Creed and their song never gets old. Higher by Creed got to be one of my favorite tracks ages ago and I still do love it until forever. What is not to like from a deep, hoarsey voice and those insanely beautiful tune from the electric guitars. Also not to forget the super awesome lyrics  by this song too :
"Higher- Creed Lyrics"

When dreaming I'm guided to another world
Time and time again
At sunrise I fight to stay asleep
'Cause I don't want to leave the comfort of this place
'Cause there's a hunger, a longing to escape
From the life I live when I'm awake
So let's go there
Let's make our escape
Come on, let's go there
Let's ask can we stay?

Can you take me Higher?
To a place where blind men see
Can you take me Higher?
To a place with golden streets

Although I would like our world to change
It helps me to appreciate
Those nights and those dreams
But, my friend, I'd sacrifice all those nights
If I could make the Earth and my dreams the same
The only difference is
To let love replace all our hate
So let's go there
Let's make our escape
Come on, let's go there
Let's ask can we stay?

Can you take me Higher?
To a place where blind men see
Can you take me Higher?
To a place with golden streets

So lets go there, lets go there,
Come on, lets go there
Lets ask can we stay?

Up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time
Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams
And make them mine
Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams
And make them mine

Can you take me Higher?
To a place where blind men see
Can you take me Higher?
To a place with golden streets

Can you take me Higher?
To a place where blind men see
Can you take me Higher?
To a place with golden streets

In short, Creed rocks and they will always be. Do enjoy the song :

Higher by Creed

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecXL_W2ZgWA